AAAR 34th Annual Conference
October 12 - October 16, 2015
Hyatt Regency
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Abstract View
Electro-hydrodynamically-Assisted Non-Thermal Plasmas as a Barrier Against Airborne Disease Transmission into Animal Confinement Buildings
HEREK CLACK, University of Michigan
Abstract Number: 292 Working Group: Environmental Fate of Infectious Aerosols
Abstract Conventional bio-security measures have long been established to prevent surface or mechanical transmission of pathogens into confined animal operations such as hog or poultry barns. However, pathogenic aerosols such as fomites can transmit over hundreds of meters diseases such as avian flu and infectious laryngotracheitis for poultry and swine flu and porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) for hogs. Retrofitting barns to filter intake ventilation air can be costly in terms of capital costs of the filter system and increased operating costs associated with filter replacement and increased fan power, particularly in hot and humid climates where insufficient ventilation rates can quickly lead to animal heat stress. Equally important, conventional filters only address one of the two factors of airborne disease transmission: aerosol transport and aerosol infectivity. This study uses numerical simulation to demonstrate how non-thermal plasmas (NTPs) can be engineered to leverage their electro-hydrodynamic (EHD) secondary fluid flow phenomena to effect a two-factor barrier against airborne disease transmission. A simplified NTP configuration is shown to achieve twice the pathogen inactivation (76%) with electric body forces included than without (39%). Further optimization of this patent-pending process has the potential to provide filter-less airstream disinfection of intake ventilation air, which would allow easier retrofits of barns and the possibility of portable units for temporary use during local outbreaks or seasonal conditions that promote long-range transport and survival of pathogenic aerosols.