Two stages exposure of co-occupants to respiratory events indoors numerical results

Jianlei Niu, Xiaoping Li

Research output: Chapter in book / Conference proceedingConference article published in proceeding or bookAcademic researchpeer-review

Abstract

Infection transmission indoors has become one of the major concerns since the outbreaks of SARS in 2003. Ventilation method possesses strong influences on the airflow patterns and consequently affects the spread of some infectious respiratory diseases. It will be important to understand whether the three typical air distribution schemes can have significant differences in reducing the infections between occupants in a room. Meanwhile, mouth covering is one feasible measure to mitigate viral infection and has been extensively studied. However, its performance in reducing airborne infections under different ventilation conditions was seldom investigated. In this paper, numerical methods are adopted to investigate the co-occupant's exposure under different ventilation systems when the infected person coughs directly or with the mouth covered. The preliminary results indicate that the whole exposure can be roughly separated as two stages, a first direct exposure stage due to high momentum coughing jet and a later indirect exposure stage because of indoor air movement. Stratified ventilation system can not ensure the better inhaled air quality for the co-occupant, while displacement ventilation (DV) can achieve the lowest personal exposure if the infected person covers the mouth when coughing.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the IASTED International Conference on Modelling and Simulation, MS 2012
Pages292-298
Number of pages7
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Oct 2012
EventIASTED International Conference on Modelling and Simulation, MS 2012 - Banff, AB, Canada
Duration: 3 Jul 20125 Jul 2012

Conference

ConferenceIASTED International Conference on Modelling and Simulation, MS 2012
Country/TerritoryCanada
CityBanff, AB
Period3/07/125/07/12

Keywords

  • Infection transmission
  • Numerical simulation
  • Personal exposure
  • Respiratory droplets
  • Ventilation system

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Computer Science Applications
  • Software
  • Modelling and Simulation

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