Natural Ventilation and Aerosol Particles Dispersion Indoors

Talib Dbouk and Dimitris Drikakis
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Talib Dbouk: IMT Nord Europe, Institut Mines-Télécom, University of Lille, Centre for Energy and Environment, F-59000 Lille, France
Dimitris Drikakis: Medical School, University of Nicosia, Nicosia CY-2417, Cyprus

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 14, 1-11

Abstract: Aerosol pollutant particles indoors significantly affect public health. The conventional wisdom is that natural ventilation will alleviate the dispersion of airborne or aerosol particles. However, we show that the problem is far more complex and that natural ventilation should be applied under specific conditions to be effective. We performed several simulations of a simplified (and easily reproducible) room with a window opening and aerosol particles stratified layers. Opening a window can scatter particles present in stratified layers indoors and potentially contribute to the degradation of indoor air quality for a significant period of time. Moreover, we show that thermal instabilities arising from the temperature gradients due to temperature differences between the indoor and outdoor environment spread the particles randomly indoors, adversely affecting air quality and architectural design. Recommendations for more efficient natural ventilation minimizing aerosol pollutant particles dispersed indoors are provided.

Keywords: aerosol hazard particles; natural ventilation; indoor air quality; heat transfer; modelling and simulation; computational fluid dynamics; OpenFOAM (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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