A coupled computational fluid dynamics and analytical model to simulate airborne contaminant transmission in cabins

A coupled computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and analytical model is presented for accurate and time-efficient prediction of transient airborne contaminant transmission in full-length airliner cabins. The CFD model was used at locations near the contaminant source, while the analytical model was used for the rest of the cabin. The CFD and analytical model coupling used two different methods for solving the transient contaminant flux. One method forced an outflow condition at the interface of the CFD; this analytical model is less accurate but easier to implement in commercial CFD software. The other method that iteratively solved the contaminant flux at the interface is more accurate but is computationally intensive. A procedure to analytically calculate the contaminant concentration using the transient contaminant flux condition at the interface was also developed.