Investigating the effect of air conditioning on the distribution and transmission of COVID-19 virus particles

Abstract

The effect of indoor airflow has been confirmed on the diffusion and transmission of droplets generated when talking or sneezing by a person with a viral respiratory infection such as COVID-19. The present study to investigate the effect of airflow in an indoor environment (a classroom) on the distribution and transmission of droplets emitted from speaking and cough by an infected person. A numerical analysis to investigate the persistence and deposition of particles on the surfaces of desks and the faces of residents (teacher and students) under various scenarios, including the opening of windows. This study puts forward two types of conditions while the teacher is speaking and the cough of some students for the distribution of pathogenic particles. Computational Fluid Dynamics used to conduct the study, using the Euler-Lagrange approach to capture the transport of the particles, and the RANS equations to compute the airflow field in the classroom. The results indicate the significant effect of air conditioning and open window close to the infected person in reducing environmental pathogens. Moreover, the concentrations of virus particles increase greatly near the output; hence, the presence of people in these areas increases the risk of contracting the disease. Furthermore, when all the windows are closed, due to the low output capacity, the particles spread in all areas of the domain and increase the risk of infection. Therefore, it is recommended that the window be open in indoors environment especially the window next to the speaker.

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“…Whereas, CFD is a powerful and low-cost approach to counteracting the spread and transmission of viral diseases [ 11 ]. Meanwhile, researchers have used computational modeling techniques to assess the potential effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical reduction strategies [ 12 ] for a wide range of indoor environments, such as: classroom [ 13 , 14 ], library [ 15 ], world-real train cabin [ 16 ], car parking [ 17 ], urban subway [ 18 ], and airplane [ 19 ]. As with many other confined spaces, the air quality for PT, such as train cabins, is a primary and vital determining factor for transmission of COVID-19.…”

“…The Eulerian and the Lagrangian approaches are broadly two methodologies to simulate the dispersion of aerosols in CFD [ 13 , [20] , [21] , [22] ]. The researchers showed by comparing experimental data that both the Eulerian and Lagrangian approaches are suitable for modeling airborne particles [ 23 , 24 ].…”

“…In the Eulerian phase, the Reynolds-Averaged Navier Stokes Equations (RANS) with approximate turbulence schemes is commonly used to estimate the airflow field distribution within a computational domain and has been applied in many investigations relevant to COVID-19 transmission [ 25 , 26 ]. Coupling the Eulerian procedure with Lagrangian particle transport dynamics allows for the incorporation of the effects of aerosol particle's characterization into the simulations and enables accurate modeling of the physical forces that act on the aerosol particles due to gravity, drag, lift, and Brownian motion in the case of aerosol particles [ 13 , 14 , 27 ].…”