The Influence of Plastic Barriers on Aerosol Infection Risk during Airport Security Checks

Shengwei Zhu (), Tong Lin, John D. Spengler, Jose Guillermo Cedeño Laurent and Jelena Srebric
Additional contact information
Shengwei Zhu: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
Tong Lin: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
John D. Spengler: Department of Environment Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA
Jose Guillermo Cedeño Laurent: Division of Environmental and Population Health Biosciences, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute, Rutgers School of Public Health, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA
Jelena Srebric: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 18, 1-14

Abstract: Plastic barriers physically separate queuing passengers in airport security check areas as a measure against aerosol transmission. However, this may create “canyons” that interfere with the existing ventilation design: potentially inhibiting airflow, concentrating exhaled viruses, and exacerbating aerosol transmission risk. Accordingly, this study investigated the transmission implications of installing plastic barriers in a security check area with computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Two air distribution schemes were modeled: one with linear air supply diffusers aligned vertically to (Case 1) and another with diffusers parallel with (Case 2) the orientation of partitions. The drift-flux model was used to calculate the spread of viral bioaerosols with 5 µm in diameter; then the Wells–Riley equation was applied to assess aerosol transmission risk for SARS-CoV-2. According to simulation results, in Case 1, installing plastic barriers resulted in relatively small changes in volume with a high infection risk of 1% or greater in the breathing zone within the first 25 min. However, in Case 2, using plastic barriers resulted in the continuous increase in this volume within the first 25 min while this volume was near zero if without plastic barriers. In conclusion, installing plastic barriers needs careful consideration because they do not reduce the risk of airborne SARS-CoV-2 transmission and might even exacerbate it without localized ventilation and air cleaning.

Keywords: ventilation; airport security check areas; plastic barriers; aerosol infection risk; computational fluid dynamics (CFD) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/18/11281/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/18/11281/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:18:p:11281-:d:910385

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().