Numerical Investigation of Airborne Contaminant Transport Under Different Vortex Structures in the Aircraft Cabin

Details

• Personal Author:
  Cao X ; Li F ; Liu J ; Ren J ; Zhu Y
• Description:
  Airborne contaminants such as pathogens, odors and CO2 released from an individual passenger could spread via air flow in an aircraft cabin and make other passengers unhealthy and uncomfortable. In this study, we introduced the airflow vortex structure to analyze how airflow patterns affected contaminant transport in an aircraft cabin. Experimental data regarding airflow patterns were used to validate a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model. Using the validated CFD model, we investigated the effects of the airflow vortex structure on contaminant transmission based on quantitative analysis. It was found that the contaminant source located in a vorticity-dominated region was more likely to be "locked" in the vortex, resulting in higher 62% higher average concentration and 14% longer residual time than that when the source was on a deformation dominated location. The contaminant concentrations also differed between the front and rear parts of the cabin because of different airflow structures. Contaminant released close to the heated manikin face was likely to be transported backward according to its distribution mean position. Based on these results, the air flow patterns inside aircraft cabins can potentially be improved to better control the spread of airborne contaminant. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Aircraft Air Movements Air Pollutants, Occupational Occupational Health Safety Ventilation
• Keywords:
  Airborne Contaminant Transmission Air Contaminants Air Flow Airflow Vortex Structure Author Keywords: Aircraft Cabin Odors Pathogens Thermal Buoyancy Ventilation Efficiency
• ISSN:
  0017-9310
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  California ; OSHA Region 9
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  287-295
• Volume:
  96
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20055747
• Citation:
  Int J Heat Mass Transf 2016 May; 96:287-295
• Contact Point Address:
  Junjie Liu, Tianjin Key Lab of Indoor Air Environmental Quality Control, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
• Email:
  jjliu@tju.edu.cn
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2016
• Performing Organization:
  University of California Los Angeles
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer
• End Date:
  20270630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:55fbebc19ffd2895709382ccc4e1c587ae0d91d179824da7da4e01dea972a0701d4df44d5a857dcb2049869b24944ca8528212494729ef40d971efcebdc99043
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/213528/cdc_213528_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 378.54 KB ]