Understanding Contaminant Transmission in Indoor Spaces Considering Real-World Operating Conditions

ROY KING, Chethani Athukorala, Suresh Dhaniyala, Clarkson University

     Abstract Number: 340
     Working Group: Indoor Aerosols

Abstract
The public health concerns about airborne transmission of germs and pathogens came to the fore during the recent pandemic. That concern also highlighted the importance of HVAC systems in moderating indoor airborne infection spread. With proper design and control, ventilation systems can moderate outdoor pollutant concentrations in indoor spaces and ensure that indoor pollutant concentrations do not build up and contribute to infection spread. Currently, most of our knowledge of the role of ventilation systems in mitigating infection spread is based on simple modeling of fully-mixed spaces. Considering the advances in computational resources available to us, it is now possible to use computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to more accurately characterize the impact of ventilation systems on the fate of aerosol in real-world spaces. In this study, we model the airflow in a large lecture hall considering realistic HVAC operation and compare the numerically obtained fate of carbon dioxide and aerosol particles with experiments in the facility. In this presentation, I will describe our modeling approach and highlight the differences between aerosol fate in real-world built environments compared to idealized fully-mixed spaces and the impact of this difference on infection spread modeling.