The effect of natural ventilation on airborne transmission of the COVID-19 virus spread by sneezing in the classroom.

Abstract

Since school classrooms are of vital importance due to their impact on public health in COVID-19 and similar epidemics, it is imperative to develop new ventilation strategies to reduce the risk of transmission of the virus in the classroom. To be able to develop new ventilation strategies, the effect of local flow behaviors in the classroom on the airborne transmission of the virus under the most dramatic conditions must first be determined. In this study, the effect of natural ventilation on the airborne transmission of COVID-19-like viruses in the classroom in the case of sneezing by two infected students in a reference secondary school classroom was investigated in five scenarios. Firstly, experimental measurements were carried out in the reference class to validate the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation results and determine the boundary conditions. Next, the effects of local flow behaviors on the airborne transmission of the virus were evaluated for five scenarios using the Eulerian-Lagrange method, a discrete phase model, and a temporary three-dimensional CFD model. In all scenarios, immediately after sneezing, between 57 and 60.2 % of the droplets containing the virus, mostly large and medium-sized (150 μm < d < 1000 μm) settled on the infected student's desk, while small droplets continued to move in the flow field. In addition, it was determined that the effect of natural ventilation in the classroom on the travel of virus droplets in the case of Re_dh < 8.04 × 10⁴ (Reynolds number, Re_dh=Ud_h/νu, dh and are fluid velocity, hydraulic diameters of the door and window sections of the class and kinematic viscosity, respectively) was negligible.