Ventilation indices for evaluation of airborne infection risk control performance of air distribution.
Build Environ
; 222: 109440, 2022 Aug 15.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1965601
ABSTRACT
Air distribution is an effective engineering measure to fight against respiratory infectious diseases like COVID-19. Ventilation indices are widely used to indicate the airborne infection risk of respiratory infectious diseases due to the practical convenience. This study investigates the relationships between the ventilation indices and airborne infection risk to suggest the proper ventilation indices for the evaluation of airborne infection risk control performance of air distribution. Besides the commonly used ventilation indices of the age of air (AoA), air change effectiveness (ACE), and contaminant removal effectiveness (CRE), this study introduces two ventilation indices, i.e., the air utilization effectiveness (AUE) and contaminant dispersion index (CDI). CFD simulations of a hospital ward and a classroom served by different air distributions, including mixing ventilation, displacement ventilation, stratum ventilation and downward ventilation, are validated to calculate the ventilation indices and airborne infection risk. A three-step correlation analysis based on Spearman's rank correlation coefficient, Pearson correlation coefficient, and goodness of fit and a min-max normalization-based error analysis are developed to qualitatively and quantitatively test the validity of ventilation indices respectively. The results recommend the integrated index of AUE and CDI to indicate the overall airborne infection risk, and CDI to indicate the local airborne infection risk respectively regardless of the effects of air distribution, supply airflow rate, infectivity intensity, room configuration and occupant distribution. This study contributes to airborne transmission control of infectious respiratory diseases with air distribution.
ACE, Air change effectiveness; AUE, Air utilization effectiveness; Age of air; Air change effectiveness; Air utilization effectiveness; Airborne infection risk; AoA, Age of air; CDI, Contaminant dispersion index; CRE, Contaminant removal effectiveness; Contaminant dispersion index; Contaminant removal effectiveness; DV, Displacement ventilation; DWV, Downward ventilation; MAE, Mean absolute error; MV, Mixing ventilation; SV, Stratum ventilation
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
/
Prognostic study
/
Qualitative research
Language:
English
Journal:
Build Environ
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
J.buildenv.2022.109440
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