REDUCED TRANSMISSION RISKS FOR PASSENGER OPERATIONS DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC

In the aircraft cabin, passengers must share a confined environment with other passengers during boarding, flight, and disembarkation, which poses a risk for virus transmission and requires risk-appropriate mitigation strategies. Spacing between passenger groups during boarding and disembarkation reduces the risk of transmission, and optimized sequencing of passenger groups helps to significantly reduce boarding and disembarkation time. We considered passenger groups to be an important factor in overall operational efficiency. The basic idea of our concept is that the members of a group should not be separated, since they were already traveling as a group before entering the aircraft. However, to comply with COVID-19 regulations, different passenger groups should be separated spatially. For the particular challenge of disembarkation, we assume that passenger groups will be informed directly when they are allowed to leave for disembarkation. Today, cabin lighting could be used for this information process, but in a future digitally connected cabin, passengers could be informed directly via their personal devices. These devices could also be used to check the required distances between passengers. The implementation of optimized group sequencing has the potential to significantly reduce boarding and disembarkation times, taking into account COVID-19 constraints. © 2022 ICAS. All Rights Reserved.

*Artificial saliva aerosol source and detection system for spreading analysis in indoor environments

In the context of the Corona pandemic the investigation of aerosol spreading is utmost important as the virus is transported by the aerosol particles exhaled by an infected person. Thus, a new aerosol generation and detection system is set up and validated. The system consists of an aerosol source generating a particle size distribution mimicking typical human exhalation with particles sizes between 0.3-2.5 µm and an array of Sensirion SPS30 particulate matter sensors. An accuracy assessment of the SPS30 sensors is conducted using a TSI OPS3330, a high-precision optical particle sizer. Low deviations of ±5 % of the particle concentration measured with the SPS30 with respect to the OPS are reported for concentrations below 2'500/cm3 and +10% for particle densities up to 25'000/cm3. As an application example the system is employed in a short distance single-aisle research aircraft Dornier 728 (Do728) located at DLR Göttingen, to investigate the large-scale aerosol-spreading. With this measurement system spreading distance from an index passenger extending one seat row to the front and two seat rows to the back is determined. © 2022 17th International Conference on Indoor Air Quality and Climate, INDOOR AIR 2022. All rights reserved.

Computational fluid dynamic analysis of corona virus patients breathing in an airplane

Effective ventilation systems are essential to control the transmission of airborne aerosol particles, such as the SARS-CoV-2 virus in aircraft cabins, which is a significant concern for people commuting by airplane. Validated computational fluid dynamic models are frequently and effectively used to investigate air distribution and pollutant transport. In this study, the effectiveness of different ventilation systems with varying outlet vent locations were computationally compared to determine the best ventilation system for minimizing the risk of airborne transmission. The cabin air conditioning system was optimized to determine how design variables (air inlet temperature, outlet valve width and location, and mass flow rate) affect output parameters, including particle residence time, age of air, and thermal comfort conditions. Inlet mass flow rate was observed to be an influential variable impacting all output parameters, especially on age of air, where it was the most influential. In contrast, the least effective variable was width of the outlet valve, which only affected the particle residence time. Also, Predicted Mean Vote and Predicted Percentage Dissatisfied indices were the most affected by air inlet temperature, which had an inverse relation, while the outlet valve location had the greatest effect on particle residence time. © 2023 Author(s).

The design and research of cargo seat cover for transport of cargo in passenger aircraft cabin under the COVID-19 pandemic

This paper analyses the current situation of passenger aircraft cabin cargo and the measures taken by airlines under the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. An innovative product cargo seat cover for flexible passenger-to-cargo conversion is proposed in response to potential problems, and product styling, material composition, design philosophy, cost and application value are researched. The aim of paper is to meet the changing requirements and challenges under the COVID-19 pandemic by exploring new models and innovative products for aircraft passenger-to-cargo conversion, and bring more possibilities to the aviation industry by breaking the inherent passenger-to-cargo mindset. © 2022 SPIE.

COVID-19: Passenger Boarding and Disembarkation

Boarding and disembarking an aircraft is a time-critical airport ground handling process. Operations in the confined aircraft cabin must also reduce the potential risk of virus transmission to passengers under current COVID-19 boundary conditions. Passenger boarding will generally be regulated by establishing passenger sequences to reduce the influence of negative interactions between passengers (e.g., congestion in the aisle). This regulation cannot be implemented to the same extent when disembarking at the end of a flight. In our approach, we generate an optimized seat allocation that takes into account both the distance constraints of COVID-19 regulations and groups of passengers traveling together (e.g., families or couples). This seat allocation minimizes the potential transmission risk, while at the same time we calculate improved entry sequences for passengers groups (fast boarding). We show in our simulation environment that boarding and disembarkation times can be significantly reduced even if a physical distance between passenger groups is required. To implement our proposed sequences during real disembarkation, we propose an active information system that incorporates the aircraft cabin lighting system. Thus, the lights above each group member could be turned on when that passenger group is requested to disembark. © ATM 2021. All rights reserved.

Modeling Impacts of Aviation Mitigations & ATC Delay on Passenger COVID-19 Infection Risk

The aviation system has been hugely impacted by COVID-19 but will be a critical enabler of economic recovery. There is an urgent need for models to help understand the potential infection risks posed by air travel, as well as the impact of different mitigations available to aviation stakeholders. This paper presents a modeling system to address these needs. Elements of the model are described and it is then exercised to explore the relative effectiveness of airport and aircraft cabin passenger density restrictions, air turnover rate and passenger mask utilization. The model is then extended to explore the impacts on infection risk of different ATC delay scenarios. The model can be built upon in the future to not only help in the recovery from COVID, but also to develop system robustness strategies to better prepare for future challenges. © ATM 2021. All rights reserved.

Modelling Air Quality in an Aircraft Passenger Cabin using Health Care Standards

A method to maintain safe air quality standards in an aircraft passenger cabin will be presented. Safe air quality with respect to aerosols in a closed space is important to protect people in their environment. The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the significance of this topic. This article is based on equations from Silich (2021) and presents these prior equations in a different format that can help to provide greater insight to the behavior of aerosols in a well-mixed space. One purpose of this article is to enhance our understanding of how an aerosol behaves in a closed space where dilution ventilation is the method used to clear the aerosol. The primary focus will be that of an aircraft passenger cabin. The model used is best applied to an aviation scenario by understanding its relationship to health care ventilation requirements. © 2022. International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace. All Rights Reserved.