Influence of indoor airflow on particle spread of a single breath and cough in enclosures: Does opening a window really ‘help’?

The spread of respiratory diseases via aerosol particles in indoor settings is of significant concern. The SARS CoV-2 virus has been found to spread widely in confined enclosures like hotels, hospitals, cruise ships, prisons, and churches. Particles exhaled from a person indoors can remain suspended long enough for increasing the opportunity for particles to spread spatially. Careful consideration of the ventilation system is essential to minimise the spread of particles containing infectious pathogens. Previous studies have shown that indoor airflow induced by opened windows would minimise the spread of particles. However, how outdoor airflow through an open window influences the indoor airflow has not been considered. The aim of this study is to provide a clear understanding of the indoor particle spread across multiple rooms, in a situation similar to what is found in quarantine hotels and cruise ships, using a combination of HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning) ventilation and an opening window. Using a previously validated mathematical model, we used 3D CFD (computational fluid dynamics) simulations to investigate to what extent different indoor airflow scenarios contribute to the transport of a single injection of particles (1.3 μm) in a basic 3D multi-room indoor environment. Although this study is limited to short times, we demonstrate that in certain conditions approximately 80% of the particles move from one room to the corridor and over 60% move to the nearby room within 5 to 15 s. Our results provide additional information to help identifying relevant recommendations to limit particles from spreading in enclosures.