Improving Indoor Air Ventilation by a Ceiling Fan to Mitigate Aerosols Transmission

Abstract

Improving air flow and ventilation in an indoor environment is central to mitigating the airborne transmission of aerosols. Examples include, COVID-19 or similar diseases that transmit by airborne aerosols or respiratory droplets. While there are standard guidelines for enhancing the ventilation of space, the effect of a ceiling fan on the ventilation has not been explored. Such an intervention could be critical, especially in a resource-limited setting. In the present work, we numerically study the effect of a rotating ceiling fan on indoor air ventilation using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. In particular, we employ RANS turbulence model and compare the computed flow fields for a stationary and rotating fan in an office room with a door and window. While a re-circulation zone spans the whole space for the stationary fan, stronger re-circulation zones and small stagnation zones appear in the flow-field inside the room for the case of a rotating fan. The re-circulation zones help bring in fresh air through the window and remove stale air through the door, thereby improving the ventilation rate by one order of magnitude. We briefly discuss the chances of infection by aerosols via flow-fields corresponding to stationary and rotating fans. Graphical Abstract