Kwang Hee Yoo, ME Researcher, measures the flow of aerosols in a University of Michigan blue bus in Ann Arbor, MI on June 24, 2020. Aerosols are liquid droplets in air that can be potential conduits for the coronavirus. A team of Michigan Engineering researchers are measuring and modeling the concentration and dispersion of aerosols in buses in order to learn how to better filter them and keep users safe. Image credit: Joseph Xu/Michigan Engineering, Communications & Marketing
Kwang Hee Yoo, ME Researcher, measures the flow of aerosols in a University of Michigan blue bus in Ann Arbor, MI on June 24, 2020. Aerosols are liquid droplets in air that can be potential conduits for the coronavirus. A team of Michigan Engineering researchers are measuring and modeling the concentration and dispersion of aerosols in buses in order to learn how to better filter them and keep users safe. Image credit: Joseph Xu/Michigan Engineering, Communications & Marketing In an effort to design a safe campus bus system for the fall semester in light of COVID-19, University of Michigan researchers simulated how aerosol particles exhaled from passengers sitting in any seat would travel through the vehicle under different conditions. That's just one facet of the broad-based work engineering researchers have undertaken in recent months to quantify risks and provide data to inform university busing decisions. In addition to developing physics-based computer models of aerosol dispersion-and validating them with experiments using water vapor-they also used algorithms to overhaul routes, reducing passengers' time on buses to minimize possible exposure to the virus. The university's bus fleet provided an estimated 8 million rides between its three Ann Arbor campuses last year.
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