What does the air flow from a trained opera singer look like? That’s the question behind this study, which combines music and fluid dynamics. Using an infrared camera tracking carbon dioxide (CO2) exhalations from a singer during a performance allowed researchers to identify several important flow features. When breathing, air flows out the singer’s nose in a tight, downward jet with an initial velocity around 1 m/s.
While singing, air leaves the mouth at a much lower velocity, especially during vowels where the mouth is open. With less momentum behind these exhalations, they can drift upward on the buoyant warmth of the singer’s breath. During consonants — especially plosives like t, k, p, b, d, and g — a rapid burst of air leaves the mouth, traveling at nearly 10 m/s. From the perspective of COVID-19 safety, it’s these plosive jets that are likely to spread contaminated droplets. (Image and video credit: MET Orchestra; research credit: P. Bourrianne et al.; via Improbable Research; submitted by Kam-Yung Soh)
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