Modeling Respiratory Airborne Particle Transport in a Car Cabin
BO YANG, John Noonan, Andrew Helgeson,
3M Company Abstract Number: 184
Working Group: Aerosol Science of Infectious Diseases: Lessons and Open Questions on Models, Transmission and Mitigation
AbstractMany taxi drivers, passengers, and ridesharing users were tested positive since the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused by the Coronavirus, SARS-Cov2 and its variants. Studies showed that the virus can be transmitted in a car cabin as respiratory airborne particles. Experimental measurement with portable air purifiers equipped with HEPA filters has been reported to be able to reduce the airborne particle concentrations in various of indoor scenarios. The goal of this study is to predict the performance of using portable air purifiers in a car cabin. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model coupled with aerosol dynamics was built. The air purifier locations were investigated. The plexiglass shields impact on the flow filed and particle trajectories were analyzed. Our findings indicate that the air purifier location is important, and the plexiglass shields could capture large particles (diameter > 100 µm), but they may decrease the air purifier performance.