{
  "abstract": "Ultraviolet (UV) inactivation of airborne viruses involves coupled multiphysics and multiscale processes, yet UV scattering within virus-laden saliva droplets is commonly neglected. Here, for the first time we combine computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and the discrete dipole approximation (DDA) to investigate the influence of droplet-scale UV scattering on airborne virus inactivation. A benchmark CFD-DDA case study is developed and demonstrated that infected saliva droplets can exhibit highly non-uniform UV scattering under representative flow and irradiance conditions. This non-uniformity can substantially affect the predicted number of surviving viral copies, $N_s$ , indicating that UV scattering should be considered when modeling UV-based airborne disinfection systems. We systematically investigate the effect on $N_s$ by varying: the initially emitted saliva droplets diameter distribution, their number ($n(t = 0) = 10^3$ or $10^4$), volumetric airflow rate ($Q_v$ = 100, 150, or 200 $m^3/h$), droplet-wall interaction (stick vs escape), and coronavirus UV susceptibility constant (Z = 0.018 or 0.377 $m^2$/J). The simulations consider initially infected saliva droplets containing $7.4 \\times 10^8$ RNA copies/mL, with a viral capsid diameter of $d_{cap}$ = 100 nm, at an air temperature of 21 °C and relative humidity of 65%. UV irradiation is represented by a 10 W cylindrical UV-lamp (34.3 mW/$cm^2$). The DDA results further enable development of an extended virus-inactivation model based on the classical Chick-Watson law that accounts for UV scattering in both spherical and nonspherical infected droplets. The results highlight the importance of resolving local UV-droplet interactions in airborne virus disinfection models and demonstrate the potential of the coupled CFD-DDA approach for improving the design and performance of UV-based airborne disinfection systems.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": "2607.06746",
  "author_total": 2,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Talib Dbouk"
    },
    {
      "name": "Maxim Yurkin"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/4nnj4fhyxe4n8.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2607.06746",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "4nnj4fhyxe4n8",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.06746",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY-NC-ND 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "physics.comp-ph"
    ],
    [
      "arxiv",
      "physics.flu-dyn"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "2740|Infection Control and Ventilation"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7167837888",
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2607.06746",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-11-02",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/4nnj4fhyxe4n8.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-03T12:21:04Z",
      "native_id": "2607.06746",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.06746"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:physics.comp-ph",
      "subfield": "computational"
    },
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:physics.flu-dyn",
      "subfield": "fluid-dynamics"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Computational Fluid Dynamics and Discrete Dipole Approximation Applied to Predict Airborne Viruses Disinfection by Ultraviolet Irradiation",
  "title_text": "Computational Fluid Dynamics and Discrete Dipole Approximation Applied to Predict Airborne Viruses Disinfection by Ultraviolet Irradiation",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-05T15:20:21Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/4nnj4fhyxe4n8",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": []
}