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Research Article

Assessing impact of intermittent window opening strategies on pathogen-laden droplet dispersion in a coach bus

Qiqi Luo1,2,3,§, Xingdong Deng4,5,6,§, Jian Hang1,2,3, Cuiyun Ou1, Zhiwen Luo7, Xiaodan Fan1, Xia Yang8, Yifei Zhang1, Zhongli Gu9, Xuelin Zhang1,2,3( )
School of Atmospheric Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, and Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory, Zhuhai 519082, China
Key Laboratory of Urban Meteorology, China Meteorological Administration, Beijing 100089, China
China Meteorological Administration Xiong’an Atmospheric Boundary Layer Key Laboratory, Xiong’an, China
Guangzhou Urban Planning & Design Survey Research Institute, Guangzhou 510060, China
Guangzhou Collaborative Innovation Center of Natural Resources Planning and Marine Technology, Guangzhou 510060, China
Guangdong Enterprise Key Laboratory for Urban Sensing, Monitoring and Early Warning, Guangzhou 510060, China
Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University, UK
Guangdong Province Engineering Laboratory for Air Pollution Control, South China Institute of Environmental Sciences, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of China, No. 7 West Street Yuancun, Guangzhou 510655, China
Guangdong Fans-tech Agro Co., Ltd, Guangdong Province, China

§ Qiqi Luo and Xingdong Deng contributed equally to this work.

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Abstract

Opening windows in coach buses is a practical approach to improving natural ventilation and mitigating infection risk (IR). Due to human behavior and weather conditions, the intermittent window opening strategy (IWOS) is a more common practice than keeping windows constantly open. Despite its prevalence, there are no studies exploring IWOS specifically in vehicles. We employed indoor-outdoor coupled CFD simulations to assess the effects of various IWOS on pathogen-laden droplet (PLD) dispersion and IR in a coach bus that occurred a COVID-19 outbreak in Hunan, China. Results reveal that after ventilating through two skylights for 600–1800 s, opening front and rear windows (FW+RW) or FW with a wind catcher (FW+WCH) for just 40 s can reduce PLD concentration (Cave) to 5% of its initial level and the intake fraction of the infector’s neighbor (IFn) drops by 95%. Upon closing FW+RW or FW+WCH, Cave and IFn take over 580 s to return to the pre-opening level. Moreover, intermittent FW opening halves Cave and IFn within 7 min, but leads to rapid increases upon window closure. Therefore, opening FW+RW and FW+WCH intermittently have pronounced impacts on indoor PLD concentration and are applicable approaches to control respiratory disease transmission in vehicles. According to the inhaled viral dose, it is recommended to open windows when driving time is over 12 minutes to reduce infection risk. In scenarios like epidemiological surveys and risk assessments, where assessing passenger infection risk is vital, some behaviors of opening windows cannot be overlooked and necessitate extra attention.

Keywords

computational fluid dynamicsnatural ventilationinfection riskwind catcherair change rate per hourtracer gas dispersion

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Building Simulation
Volume 17 Issue 7,
July 2024
Pages 1183-1200
DOI: 10.1007/s12273-024-1134-5
Cite this article:
Luo Q, Deng X, Hang J, et al. Assessing impact of intermittent window opening strategies on pathogen-laden droplet dispersion in a coach bus. Building Simulation, 2024, 17(7): 1183-1200. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12273-024-1134-5

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Received: 02 January 2024
Revised: 30 March 2024
Accepted: 07 April 2024
Published: 23 May 2024
© Tsinghua University Press 2024
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