With many dangerous diseases being spread through airborne transmission, it is important to understand inactivation methods of aerosolized pathogens, one of these methods being heat. This project outlines a two-part model. The first part is a thermal model describing how electromagnetic heating affects the temperature in airborne liquid droplets as a function of time. The second part is a survival model that represents the percentage of pathogens that have been inactivated as a function of the temperature model and of time. This model assumes that these aerosolized droplets are evenly spaced apart, and also assumes there is heat loss between the aerosols and the surrounding air. What this project aims to answer is that given the rate of heat loss of the aerosols and the droplet spacing, what fraction of the virus population survives over time depending on these parameters?

• This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

Creator

• Chhoeuk, Kai

Subject

• Project-Based Learning
• Energy
• Health
• Computing

Publisher

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Identifier

• E-project-042524-111341
• 121674

Keyword

• aerosol
• pathogen
• electromagnetic heating

Advisor

• Tilley, Burt S.

Year

• 2024

UN Sustainable Development Goals

• 3 - Good Health and Well-being

Date created

• 2024-04-25

Resource type

• Major Qualifying Project

Major

• Mathematical Sciences

Source

• E-project-042524-111341

Rights statement

• In Copyright