Transmission of Cough Aerosols in a Hospital Room Related to COVID-19

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak in recent years has become a pandemic across the globe. Which has a significant risk on human health causing nearly 5 million deaths worldwide. Recent research has shown that aerosol transmission is the main cause of COVID-19 virus spread. Sanitization of hands or the 6 feet at a recommended distance by WHO can reduce the virus but people with greater occupancy are needed to be addressed. A vulnerable place for disease infection is a hospital room where many patients have been infected with COVID-19. Transmission of the virus is the main cause of COVID-19 spread. Thus, understanding the flow physics of virus transmission through CFD analysis is necessary. A Euler-Lagrangian model is used to investigate aerosol transmission from an infected person inside a hospital room under the effect of ventilation. Ventilation plays a great role in the removal of aerosols from an enclosed environment. UDF was applied to turn the ventilation on after the coughing. Results have shown that without ventilation the aerosols are reaching the outlets of the room faster, while due to the ventilation effect the same aerosols reach slower due to recirculation. Aerosols travel according to the dominant ventilation flow. If the ventilation is turned off and there is no steady downward movement of air, the particles do not fall to the ground but will evaporate with time. Evaporation of the particles depends on the ambient temperature and relative humidity. The existence of running ventilation is required to prevent the circulation of aerosols. © 2022 IEEE.