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Modeling aerosol transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in multi-room facility

The versatile and computationally attractive FATE™ facility software package for analyzing the transient behavior of facilities during normal and off-normal conditions is applied to the problem of SARS-CoV-2 virus transmission in single-and multi-room facilities. Subject to the justifiable assumptio...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Kennedy, Matthew, Lee, Sung Jin, Epstein, Michael
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7644243/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33173256
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jlp.2020.104336
Descripción
Sumario:The versatile and computationally attractive FATE™ facility software package for analyzing the transient behavior of facilities during normal and off-normal conditions is applied to the problem of SARS-CoV-2 virus transmission in single-and multi-room facilities. Subject to the justifiable assumptions of non-interacting virus droplets, room-wide spatially homogeneous virus droplet aerosols and droplet sedimentation in accordance with Stokes law; the FATE code tracks the virus aerosol from a human source through a facility with a practical ventilation system which reconditions, filters, and recycles the air. The results show that infection risk can be reduced by 50 percent for increased facility airflow, 70 percent for increased airflow and the inclusion of a HEPA filter on recirculated ventilation air, and nearly 90 percent for increased airflow, inclusion of a HEPA filter, and wearing a mask. These results clearly indicate that there are operational changes and engineering measures which can reduce the potential infection risk in multi-room facilities.