Characterization of the indoor near-field aerosol transmission in a model commercial office building

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Abstract

To evaluate the exposure potential of infectious aerosols containing SARS-CoV-2 in an office building setting, synthetic test aerosols were used to experimental study airborne particle transmission in a multizone small office test building at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Nine measurement points in a single zone using active aerosol impactors report that the coefficient of variation of the time-averaged concentration is <10% in two campaigns and < 15% in one campaign, so a nearly well-mixed condition was noted. To understand the effect of HVAC system operation on the dynamic concentration of aerosols in office spaces, an aerosol transport model that includes factors such as outside air (OA) ratio, filtration, return air fraction, transport loss in air ducts, and particle deposition has been developed. The results of model fitting demonstrate strong agreement with experimental data. Our investigation finds the return air fraction effects outweigh other mechanisms for the aerosol recirculation in this study, and the impact of air change rate (ACR) is more important than the small particle deposition for aerosol removal. Because ACR dominates the aerosol transport, the full model can be simplified to just one factor, the ACR, while maintaining an acceptable representation of the experimental data.

Original languageEnglish
Article number105745
JournalInternational Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer
Volume130
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 2022

Funding

This research was supported at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory by the DOE Office of Science through the National Virtual Biotechnology Laboratory, a consortium of DOE national laboratories focused on the response to COVID-19, with funding provided by the Coronavirus CARES Act . Anthony Gehl and Seungjae Lee are acknowledged for their assistance in the experimental setup and installation of building sensors. This research used resources at the Building Technologies Research and Integration Center, a DOE Office of Science User Facility operated by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Oak Ridge National Laboratory is managed by UT-BATTELLE, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725. This research was supported at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory by the DOE Office of Science through the National Virtual Biotechnology Laboratory, a consortium of DOE national laboratories focused on the response to COVID-19, with funding provided by the Coronavirus CARES Act. Anthony Gehl and Seungjae Lee are acknowledged for their assistance in the experimental setup and installation of building sensors. This research used resources at the Building Technologies Research and Integration Center, a DOE Office of Science User Facility operated by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Oak Ridge National Laboratory is managed by UT-BATTELLE, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725. This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The US government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for US government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan ( http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan ).

Keywords

  • Aerosol transmissions
  • Indoor air
  • SARS-CoV-2
  • Ventilation

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