Unrealistic assumptions may lead to unrealistic simulation results: Droplet nuclei are neglected in a COVID-19 transmission simulation (Comments)

Abstract

Bale et al. [1] perform a numerical study of droplet/aerosol transport in the air to assess the probability of airborne transmission of COVID-19 from an infected person to a nearby healthy person. In their numerical study, the air flow field is solved by an implicit large eddy simulation model, and the airborne transport of the droplets/aerosols exhaled from an infected person is solved by a Lagrangian particle model which considers droplet/aerosol evaporation. In the model used for droplets/aerosols, I found that an unrealistic assumption is used which may have a significant impact on the numerical accuracy: Droplet nuclei contained in real respiratory droplets/aerosols are neglected.