Numerical study of different ventilation schemes in a classroom for efficient aerosol control
The air quality is a parameter to be controlled in order to live in a comfortable place. This paper analyzes the trajectory of aerosols exhaled into the environment in a classroom. Three scenarios are investigated; without ventilation, with natural and with mechanical ventilation. A multi-phase comp...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2023-09-01
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| Series: | Heliyon |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405844023071694 |
| _version_ | 1797669762104295424 |
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| author | Ainara Ugarte-Anero Unai Fernandez-Gamiz Koldo Portal-Porras Jose Manuel Lopez-Guede Gaspar Sanchez-Merino |
| author_facet | Ainara Ugarte-Anero Unai Fernandez-Gamiz Koldo Portal-Porras Jose Manuel Lopez-Guede Gaspar Sanchez-Merino |
| author_sort | Ainara Ugarte-Anero |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The air quality is a parameter to be controlled in order to live in a comfortable place. This paper analyzes the trajectory of aerosols exhaled into the environment in a classroom. Three scenarios are investigated; without ventilation, with natural and with mechanical ventilation. A multi-phase computational fluid study based on Eulerian-Lagrangian techniques is defined. Temperature and ambient relative humidity, as well as air velocity, direction and pressure is taken into account. For droplets evaporation, mass transfer and turbulent dispersion have been added. This work tends to be of great help in various areas, such as the field of medicine and energy engineering, aiming to show the path of aerosols dispersed in the air. The results show that the classroom with a mechanical ventilation scheme offers good results when it comes to an efficient control of aerosols. In all three cases, aerosols exhaled into the environment impregnate the front row student in the first 0.5 s. Reaching the time of 4, 2 and 1 s, in the class without ventilation, mechanical and natural ventilation, respectively, the aerosols have been already deposited on the table of the person in the first row, being exposed for longer in the case of no ventilation. Particles with a diameter of less than 20 μm are distributed throughout the classroom over a long period. The air jet injected into the interior space offers a practically constant relative humidity and a drop in temperature, slowing down the process of evaporation of the particles. In the first second, it can be seen that a mass of 0.0025 mg formed by 9 million droplets accumulates, in cases without ventilation and natural ventilation. The room with a mechanical installation accumulated 5.5 million particles of mass 0.0028 mg in the first second. The energy losses generated by natural ventilation are high compared to the other scenarios, exactly forty and twenty times more in the scenario with mechanical ventilation and without ventilation, respectively. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T20:49:16Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-3aff1d3d3c584c6caa9c4f83209b8892 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2405-8440 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T20:49:16Z |
| publishDate | 2023-09-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Heliyon |
| spelling | doaj.art-3aff1d3d3c584c6caa9c4f83209b88922023-10-01T06:02:01ZengElsevierHeliyon2405-84402023-09-0199e19961Numerical study of different ventilation schemes in a classroom for efficient aerosol controlAinara Ugarte-Anero0Unai Fernandez-Gamiz1Koldo Portal-Porras2Jose Manuel Lopez-Guede3Gaspar Sanchez-Merino4Nuclear Engineering and Fluid Mechanics Department, University of the Basque Country, UPV/EHU, Nieves Cano 12, Vitoria-Gasteiz, 01006, Araba, Spain; Bioaraba, New Technologies and Information Systems in Health Research Group, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain; Osakidetza Basque Health Service, Araba University Hospital, Medical Physics Department, Vitoria-Gasteiz, SpainNuclear Engineering and Fluid Mechanics Department, University of the Basque Country, UPV/EHU, Nieves Cano 12, Vitoria-Gasteiz, 01006, Araba, Spain; Bioaraba, New Technologies and Information Systems in Health Research Group, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain; Osakidetza Basque Health Service, Araba University Hospital, Medical Physics Department, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain; Corresponding author. Nuclear Engineering and Fluid Mechanics Department, University of the Basque Country, UPV/EHU, Nieves Cano 12, Vitoria-Gasteiz, 01006, Araba, Spain.Nuclear Engineering and Fluid Mechanics Department, University of the Basque Country, UPV/EHU, Nieves Cano 12, Vitoria-Gasteiz, 01006, Araba, SpainBioaraba, New Technologies and Information Systems in Health Research Group, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain; Osakidetza Basque Health Service, Araba University Hospital, Medical Physics Department, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain; System Engineering and Automation Control Department, University of the Basque Country, UPV/EHU, Nieves Cano 12, Vitoria-Gasteiz, 01006, Araba, SpainBioaraba, New Technologies and Information Systems in Health Research Group, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain; Osakidetza Basque Health Service, Araba University Hospital, Medical Physics Department, Vitoria-Gasteiz, SpainThe air quality is a parameter to be controlled in order to live in a comfortable place. This paper analyzes the trajectory of aerosols exhaled into the environment in a classroom. Three scenarios are investigated; without ventilation, with natural and with mechanical ventilation. A multi-phase computational fluid study based on Eulerian-Lagrangian techniques is defined. Temperature and ambient relative humidity, as well as air velocity, direction and pressure is taken into account. For droplets evaporation, mass transfer and turbulent dispersion have been added. This work tends to be of great help in various areas, such as the field of medicine and energy engineering, aiming to show the path of aerosols dispersed in the air. The results show that the classroom with a mechanical ventilation scheme offers good results when it comes to an efficient control of aerosols. In all three cases, aerosols exhaled into the environment impregnate the front row student in the first 0.5 s. Reaching the time of 4, 2 and 1 s, in the class without ventilation, mechanical and natural ventilation, respectively, the aerosols have been already deposited on the table of the person in the first row, being exposed for longer in the case of no ventilation. Particles with a diameter of less than 20 μm are distributed throughout the classroom over a long period. The air jet injected into the interior space offers a practically constant relative humidity and a drop in temperature, slowing down the process of evaporation of the particles. In the first second, it can be seen that a mass of 0.0025 mg formed by 9 million droplets accumulates, in cases without ventilation and natural ventilation. The room with a mechanical installation accumulated 5.5 million particles of mass 0.0028 mg in the first second. The energy losses generated by natural ventilation are high compared to the other scenarios, exactly forty and twenty times more in the scenario with mechanical ventilation and without ventilation, respectively.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405844023071694Computational fluid mechanics (CFD)Natural ventilationMechanical ventilationDropletsFateEvaporation |
| spellingShingle | Ainara Ugarte-Anero Unai Fernandez-Gamiz Koldo Portal-Porras Jose Manuel Lopez-Guede Gaspar Sanchez-Merino Numerical study of different ventilation schemes in a classroom for efficient aerosol control Heliyon Computational fluid mechanics (CFD) Natural ventilation Mechanical ventilation Droplets Fate Evaporation |
| title | Numerical study of different ventilation schemes in a classroom for efficient aerosol control |
| title_full | Numerical study of different ventilation schemes in a classroom for efficient aerosol control |
| title_fullStr | Numerical study of different ventilation schemes in a classroom for efficient aerosol control |
| title_full_unstemmed | Numerical study of different ventilation schemes in a classroom for efficient aerosol control |
| title_short | Numerical study of different ventilation schemes in a classroom for efficient aerosol control |
| title_sort | numerical study of different ventilation schemes in a classroom for efficient aerosol control |
| topic | Computational fluid mechanics (CFD) Natural ventilation Mechanical ventilation Droplets Fate Evaporation |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405844023071694 |
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