Machine learning predicts bioaerosol trajectories in enclosed environments: Introducing a novel method

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has sparked a global interest in understanding the mechanism of transmission of bioaerosols in enclosed environments. Swift and accurate calculations of particle trajectories are crucial for predicting the diffusion of bioaerosols. The use of machine learning can expedite these calculations and predictions. However, research focusing on the use of machine learning methods for calculating bioaerosol trajectories remains scarce. A bioaerosol trajectory is a time series with long intervals and delays between different positions; certain machine learning models are well suited for handling time series data. Herein, we aimed to establish a new method we refer to as physics–machine learning (P–ML) that includes a machine learning model for calculating bioaerosol trajectories. To this end, we adopted a lightweight, single-layer long short-term memory (LSTM) model and used supervised learning with mean squared error as an evaluation metric for training. Our findings indicate that disregarding the turbulence diffusion enables us to train the LSTM model by a motion equation. Furthermore, the model accurately predicted trajectories while exhibiting some degree of transferability. However, when considering the turbulence diffusion of bioaerosol, the training data in P–ML method could not be generated using a motion equation with turbulence diffusion model (Discrete Random Walk model). To address this issue, we integrating the fluctuating velocity into the LSTM model input. Consequently, the predicted results were consistent with the motion equation. Our method exhibits considerable potential for expediting trajectory calculation and aiding in early warning and rapid design in enclosed environments.

Copyright © 2023 American Association for Aerosol Research

Editor:

• Jing Wang

Disclosure statement

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Outstanding Youth Science Fund Project of National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 42122058), National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52208107 and 41977368), National Key R&D Program of China (2021YFF0604000), Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province (No. E2021502046), and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 2021MS075 and 2022MS088).

Notes on contributors

Zhijian Liu

Zhijian Liu: Funding acquisition, Formal analysis, Supervision, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing. Jiaqi Chu: Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing, Software, Programming, Data curation, Visualization, Data analysis. Zhenzhe Huang, Haochuan Li, and Xiao Xia: Formal analysis, Writing—review & editing, Software, Programming, Data curation. Junzhou He: Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing, Methodology, Supervision, Project administration, Programming, Formal analysis. Weijie Yang: Formal analysis, Supervision, Funding acquisition. Xuqiang Shao: Programming, Supervision. Haiyang Liu: Writing—review & editing.

Jiaqi Chu

Zhijian Liu: Funding acquisition, Formal analysis, Supervision, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing. Jiaqi Chu: Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing, Software, Programming, Data curation, Visualization, Data analysis. Zhenzhe Huang, Haochuan Li, and Xiao Xia: Formal analysis, Writing—review & editing, Software, Programming, Data curation. Junzhou He: Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing, Methodology, Supervision, Project administration, Programming, Formal analysis. Weijie Yang: Formal analysis, Supervision, Funding acquisition. Xuqiang Shao: Programming, Supervision. Haiyang Liu: Writing—review & editing.

Zhenzhe Huang

Zhijian Liu: Funding acquisition, Formal analysis, Supervision, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing. Jiaqi Chu: Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing, Software, Programming, Data curation, Visualization, Data analysis. Zhenzhe Huang, Haochuan Li, and Xiao Xia: Formal analysis, Writing—review & editing, Software, Programming, Data curation. Junzhou He: Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing, Methodology, Supervision, Project administration, Programming, Formal analysis. Weijie Yang: Formal analysis, Supervision, Funding acquisition. Xuqiang Shao: Programming, Supervision. Haiyang Liu: Writing—review & editing.

Haochuan Li

Zhijian Liu: Funding acquisition, Formal analysis, Supervision, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing. Jiaqi Chu: Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing, Software, Programming, Data curation, Visualization, Data analysis. Zhenzhe Huang, Haochuan Li, and Xiao Xia: Formal analysis, Writing—review & editing, Software, Programming, Data curation. Junzhou He: Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing, Methodology, Supervision, Project administration, Programming, Formal analysis. Weijie Yang: Formal analysis, Supervision, Funding acquisition. Xuqiang Shao: Programming, Supervision. Haiyang Liu: Writing—review & editing.

Xia Xiao

Zhijian Liu: Funding acquisition, Formal analysis, Supervision, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing. Jiaqi Chu: Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing, Software, Programming, Data curation, Visualization, Data analysis. Zhenzhe Huang, Haochuan Li, and Xiao Xia: Formal analysis, Writing—review & editing, Software, Programming, Data curation. Junzhou He: Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing, Methodology, Supervision, Project administration, Programming, Formal analysis. Weijie Yang: Formal analysis, Supervision, Funding acquisition. Xuqiang Shao: Programming, Supervision. Haiyang Liu: Writing—review & editing.

Junzhou He

Zhijian Liu: Funding acquisition, Formal analysis, Supervision, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing. Jiaqi Chu: Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing, Software, Programming, Data curation, Visualization, Data analysis. Zhenzhe Huang, Haochuan Li, and Xiao Xia: Formal analysis, Writing—review & editing, Software, Programming, Data curation. Junzhou He: Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing, Methodology, Supervision, Project administration, Programming, Formal analysis. Weijie Yang: Formal analysis, Supervision, Funding acquisition. Xuqiang Shao: Programming, Supervision. Haiyang Liu: Writing—review & editing.

Weijie Yang

Zhijian Liu: Funding acquisition, Formal analysis, Supervision, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing. Jiaqi Chu: Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing, Software, Programming, Data curation, Visualization, Data analysis. Zhenzhe Huang, Haochuan Li, and Xiao Xia: Formal analysis, Writing—review & editing, Software, Programming, Data curation. Junzhou He: Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing, Methodology, Supervision, Project administration, Programming, Formal analysis. Weijie Yang: Formal analysis, Supervision, Funding acquisition. Xuqiang Shao: Programming, Supervision. Haiyang Liu: Writing—review & editing.

Xuqiang Shao

Zhijian Liu: Funding acquisition, Formal analysis, Supervision, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing. Jiaqi Chu: Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing, Software, Programming, Data curation, Visualization, Data analysis. Zhenzhe Huang, Haochuan Li, and Xiao Xia: Formal analysis, Writing—review & editing, Software, Programming, Data curation. Junzhou He: Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing, Methodology, Supervision, Project administration, Programming, Formal analysis. Weijie Yang: Formal analysis, Supervision, Funding acquisition. Xuqiang Shao: Programming, Supervision. Haiyang Liu: Writing—review & editing.

Haiyang Liu

Zhijian Liu: Funding acquisition, Formal analysis, Supervision, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing. Jiaqi Chu: Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing, Software, Programming, Data curation, Visualization, Data analysis. Zhenzhe Huang, Haochuan Li, and Xiao Xia: Formal analysis, Writing—review & editing, Software, Programming, Data curation. Junzhou He: Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing, Methodology, Supervision, Project administration, Programming, Formal analysis. Weijie Yang: Formal analysis, Supervision, Funding acquisition. Xuqiang Shao: Programming, Supervision. Haiyang Liu: Writing—review & editing.