Impact of Seat Inclination and Misalignment on Airborne Pollutant Transport in a Single-Aisle Aircraft Cabin

Abstract

Airborne pollutant transport in an aircraft cabin is greatly affected by the created airflow. The seat layout can impact the flow and thus the pollutant transport. Most studies have adopted symmetric upright seats for simplicity. The influence of seat inclination and seat misalignment on airflow and pollutant transport is still unclear. This investigation adopted a validated computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method to study the airflow and airborne pollutant distribution in a single-aisle cabin with seven rows of seats. The pollutant was assumed to be released from a passenger seated in the middle of three adjacent seats. A total of five different seat layouts were considered, including all of the upright seats, the inclination of three adjacent seats, the inclination of all of the seats in half a cabin, the inclination of all of the seats in a whole cabin, and the misalignment seat rows across the aisle. The flows in both the cross and longitudinal sections were compared. The pollutant concentrations in the respiratory zone of the passengers in different seats were adopted to evaluate the cross-contamination. The results revealed that the symmetric seat layout aids to circumscribe the released pollutant in a small region and reduces the cross-contamination either by maintaining the upright seats or inclining all of the seats. Contrarily, any inclination of seats or a misalignment of seat rows should be avoided during the pandemic since an asymmetric seat layout would generate asymmetric flow and strengthen the spreading of pollutants.

Transmission and infection risk of COVID-19 when people coughing in an elevator

“…Therefore, adhering to elevator standards alone may not prevent the spread of COVID-19 in elevators. Apart from the ventilation system, other factors could also impact the droplet transmission, such as location of the infected person [ 16 , 17 ], how persons are positioned in the elevator [ 18 ], and whether the persons are wearing masks [ 19 , 20 ]. Therefore, it is essential to assess the likelihood of infection of COVID-19 in elevators under different ventilation rates, source locations, and person standing arrangements.…”