TY - JOUR
T1 - Air Flows in Opera
AU - Bourrianne, Philippe
AU - Kaneelil, Paul R.
AU - Abkarian, Manouk
AU - Stone, Howard A.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors thank Elizabeth Bowman and the MET Orchestra for their active support and interest, and their extraordinary availability. In particular, we thank the professionals from the MET Orchestra who came to our laboratory to perform: Stephanie Mortimore, Dean LeBlanc, Barbara Currie, Pedro Díaz, Demian Austin, and Ray Riccomini. Many thanks also go to the opera singers for their time, motivation and interest: Isabel Leonard, Angel Blue, and Christine Goerke. We thank FLIR, Michael Roselli, and Tim McDowd for the gracious loan of the infrared camera, the Princeton Open Ventilation Monitor Collaboration for the design of the flow meter, and the National Science Foundation for support via grant CBET 2029370 (RAPID) and CBET 2116184 (Program Manager is Ron Joslin). Finally, we thank Simon Levin, Andrew Moravcsik, and Vince Poor from Princeton University for their help and support. The study was approved by the Princeton University Institutional Review Board (protocol 12834). The subjects provided informed consent.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 American Physical Society.
PY - 2022/7
Y1 - 2022/7
N2 - Clusters of contaminations have been identified within rehearsing choirs during the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, singing and playing wind instruments are known to generate enhanced release of respiratory droplets, which are then transported by the expiratory flows. By tracking the air exhaled by professional opera singers and musicians from the MET Orchestra in New York City, we measure the spatial extent of the various air flows in opera. While loud singing is often associated with fast flows, professional opera singers and musicians are usually exhaling air flows slower than the air jets exhaled by a person breathing at rest. However, we identify a few situations leading to the release of rapid air jets that are able to enhance the transport of pathogenic droplets within an orchestra. Finally, we show how singing with a facemask and covering the bell of a wind instrument provide a strong reduction of the transport of respiratory droplets, in addition to the filtration features of a mask.
AB - Clusters of contaminations have been identified within rehearsing choirs during the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, singing and playing wind instruments are known to generate enhanced release of respiratory droplets, which are then transported by the expiratory flows. By tracking the air exhaled by professional opera singers and musicians from the MET Orchestra in New York City, we measure the spatial extent of the various air flows in opera. While loud singing is often associated with fast flows, professional opera singers and musicians are usually exhaling air flows slower than the air jets exhaled by a person breathing at rest. However, we identify a few situations leading to the release of rapid air jets that are able to enhance the transport of pathogenic droplets within an orchestra. Finally, we show how singing with a facemask and covering the bell of a wind instrument provide a strong reduction of the transport of respiratory droplets, in addition to the filtration features of a mask.
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U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevApplied.18.024042
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevApplied.18.024042
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85136152835
SN - 2331-7019
VL - 18
JO - Physical Review Applied
JF - Physical Review Applied
IS - 2
M1 - 024042
ER -