Fans deactivation for minimisation of airborne pathogen transmission: During Malaysians congregational prayer gathering in mosque

ABSTRACT

This research investigated the possibility of minimising airborne pathogen transmission in a mosque during congregational prayer by reducing air flow circulation within the space using the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation method. A three-dimensional model representing an internal mosque building and prayers congregation was created and meshed, using a numerical computational method. In contrast, an individual airborne pathogen transmission was modelled using a discrete particle model (DPM) to represent the particle flow characteristics. The model was validated using a piecewise approach, and the results were in good agreement with the experimental results. This demonstrated that fan deactivation could reduce pathogen transmission by 24.62%. The reason for this significant reduction is that droplets expelled by assailants during a prayer session lack the propagational energy required to cause infection of other members of the congregation due to disengagement of the fans. This research equally revealed that understanding the characteristics of particles adherence to surfaces and their directions of propagation can serve as a guide in epidemic prevention and transmission and control of infectious diseases.