Indoor Transmission of Respiratory Droplets Under Different Ventilation Systems Using the Eulerian Approach for the Dispersed Phase

• Published in: Fluids (Basel) Vol. 10; no. 7; p. 185
• Main Authors: Feng, Yi, Li, Dongyue, Marchisio, Daniele, Vanni, Marco, Buffo, Antonio
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.07.2025
• Subjects: Aerosols; Behavior; Comparative analysis; Disease transmission; Droplets; Eulerian approach; Eulerian–Lagrangian approach; Fluid dynamics; Gases; Health aspects; Health risks; Hydrodynamics; Indoor environments; Infection; Infections; Infectious diseases; Methods; Numerical analysis; Outdoor air quality; Pollution dispersion; population balance equation; Population balance models; respiratory droplets; Simulation; Tracers (Chemistry); Two fluid models; Ventilation; ventilation systems
• ISSN: 2311-5521; 2311-5521
• DOI: 10.3390/fluids10070185

Infectious diseases can spread through virus-laden respiratory droplets exhaled into the air. Ventilation systems are crucial in indoor settings as they can dilute or eliminate these droplets, underscoring the importance of understanding their efficacy in the management of indoor infections. Within the field of fluid dynamics methods, the dispersed droplets may be approached through either a Lagrangian framework or an Eulerian framework. In this study, various Eulerian methodologies are systematically compared against the Eulerian–Lagrangian (E-L) approach across three different scenarios: the pseudo-single-phase model (PSPM) for assessing the transport of gaseous pollutants in an office with displacement ventilation (DV), stratum ventilation (SV), and mixing ventilation (MV); the two-fluid model (TFM) for evaluating the transport of non-evaporating particles within an office with DV and MV; and the two-fluid model-population balance equation (TFM-PBE) approach for analyzing the transport of evaporating droplets in a ward with MV. The Eulerian and Lagrangian approaches present similar agreement with the experimental data, indicating that the two approaches are comparable in accuracy. The computational cost of the E-L approach is closely related to the number of tracked droplets; therefore, the Eulerian approach is recommended when the number of droplets required by the simulation is large. Finally, the performances of DV, SV, and MV are presented and discussed. DV creates a stratified environment due to buoyant flows, which transport respiratory droplets upward. MV provides a well-mixed environment, resulting in a uniform dispersion of droplets. SV supplies fresh air directly to the breathing zone, thereby effectively reducing infection risk. Consequently, DV and SV are preferred to reduce indoor infection.