Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA.
Canada Beef, Mississauga, ON, L5N 5R1, Canada.
Environ Res. 2023 Nov 1;236(Pt 1):116603. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.116603. Epub 2023 Jul 16.
Spreading patterns of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) showed that infected and asymptotic carriers both played critical role in escalating transmission of virus leading to global pandemic. Indoor environments of restaurants, classrooms, hospitals, offices, large assemblies, and industrial installations are susceptible to virus outbreak. Industrial facilities such as fabrication rooms of meat processing plants, which are laden with moisture and fat in indoor air are the most sensitive spaces. Fabrication room workers standing next to each other are exposed to the risk of long-range viral droplets transmission within the facility. An asymptomatic carrier may transmit the virus unintentionally to fellow workers through sporadic sneezing leading to community spread. A novel Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model of a fabrication room with typical interior (stationary objects) was prepared and investigated. Study was conducted to identify indoor airflow patterns, droplets spreading patterns, leading droplets removal mechanism, locations causing maximum spread of droplets, and infection index for workers along with stationary objects in reference to seven sneeze locations covering the entire room. The role of condensers, exhaust fans and leakage of indoor air through large and small openings to other rooms was investigated. This comprehensive study presents flow scenarios in the facility and helps identify locations that are potentially at lower or higher risk for exposure to COVID-19. The results presented in this study are suitable for future engineering analyses aimed at redesigning public spaces and common areas to minimize the spread of aerosols and droplets that may contain pathogens.
冠状病毒病 (COVID-19) 的传播模式表明，感染和无症状携带者在病毒传播加剧导致全球大流行方面都发挥了关键作用。餐馆、教室、医院、办公室、大型集会和工业设施等室内环境容易发生病毒爆发。工业设施，如肉类加工厂的加工室，室内空气中充满水分和脂肪，是最敏感的空间。在加工室内彼此相邻站立的工人面临着车间内长程病毒飞沫传播的风险。无症状携带者可能会通过偶尔打喷嚏，将病毒无意中传播给同事，从而导致社区传播。本文建立了一个具有典型内部结构（固定物体）的加工室的新型计算流体动力学（CFD）模型，并对其进行了研究。本研究旨在确定室内气流模式、飞沫传播模式、飞沫去除机制、导致飞沫最大传播的位置以及工人和固定物体的感染指数，参照覆盖整个房间的七个打喷嚏位置。研究了冷凝器、排气扇以及室内空气通过大、小开口泄漏到其他房间的作用。这项全面的研究展示了设施内的流动情况，并有助于确定那些潜在的较低或较高风险的暴露位置。本研究的结果适用于旨在重新设计公共空间和公共区域的未来工程分析，以最大程度地减少可能含有病原体的气溶胶和飞沫的传播。
