Influence of natural ventilation design on the dispersion of pathogen-laden droplets in a coach bus.

ABSTRACT: Natural ventilation is an energy-efficient design approach to reduce infection risk (IR), but its optimized design in a coach bus environment is less studied. Based on a COVID-19 outbreak in a bus in Hunan, China, the indoor-outdoor coupled CFD modeling approach is adopted to comprehensively explore how optimized bus natural ventilation (e.g., opening/closing status of front/middle/rear windows (FW/MW/RW)) and ceiling wind catcher (WCH) affect the dispersion of pathogen-laden droplets (tracer gas, 5 μm, 50 μm) and IR. Other key influential factors including bus speed, infector's location, and ambient temperature (T_ref) are also considered. Buses have unique natural ventilation airflow patterns: from bus rear to front, and air change rate per hour (ACH) increases linearly with bu

SUBMITTER: Luo Q 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10147445 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature