Dispersion of droplets due to the use of air purifiers during summer: Focus on the spread of COVID-19

Na, Hoo Seung; Kim, Hyungkeun; Kim, Taeyeon

doi:10.1016/j.buildenv.2023.110136

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…In most cases, however, it is left to the users to determine how to position and operate the air purifiers according to their specific demands. Studies [5][6][7][8][9] reveal that the positioning of air purifiers may have a significant effect on their efficacy due to the interactions between the air jets from air purifiers and the background ventilation airflow in the room. An experimental measurement by Na et al [5] in a classroom showed that an improperly placed air purifier can increase the PM concentration by 278% in localised regions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Studies [5][6][7][8][9] reveal that the positioning of air purifiers may have a significant effect on their efficacy due to the interactions between the air jets from air purifiers and the background ventilation airflow in the room. An experimental measurement by Na et al [5] in a classroom showed that an improperly placed air purifier can increase the PM concentration by 278% in localised regions. Ham [8] suggests that the virus-laden droplets released by an infected person may spread throughout the room via airflow from an air purifier, so that a single infected person can give rise to an infection cluster.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Portable Air Purifiers’ Predicted Efficacy in Mitigating Airborne Pathogen Transmission in an Office Room Featuring Mixing Ventilation

Li,

Patel,

Cole

2023

Fluids

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Portable air purifiers have been extensively used to improve indoor air quality and mitigate the transmission of airborne diseases. However, the efficacy of mitigation is strongly affected by the interactions between jet flows of processed air from the air purifiers and the background airflows driven by the ventilation system. Critical factors in this context include the position and capacity of air purifiers and the ventilation rate of the heating ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) system. These factors are investigated in this study via computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations and the infection probability for different scenarios is quantified using the latest airborne infection predictive model incorporating recent pathological and clinical data for SARS-CoV-2. The results show that the use of air purifiers can significantly reduce the concentration of particulate matter, thus contributing to a generally lower risk of airborne transmission. However, the position of air purifiers affects their overall efficacy remarkably. Comparatively, a central HVAC system is more efficient at removing airborne particles under an equivalent ventilation rate assuming it uses a mixing ventilation scheme.

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