Air change rate effects on the airborne diseases spreading in Underground Metro wagons

Abstract

The effect of the rate of change of fresh air inside passengers’ wagons for Underground Metro on the spreading of airborne diseases like COVID-19 is investigated numerically. The study investigates two extreme scenarios for the location of the source of infection within the wagon with four different air change rates for each. The first scenario considers the source of infection at the closest point to the ventilation system while the other places the infection source at the farthest point from the wagon ventilation system. The effect of the wagon windows’ status (i.e. closed or open) is also studied. It is found that under all conditions, open windows are always favored to decrease the infection spreading potential. A higher air change rate also decreases the infection spreading up to a certain value, beyond which the effect is not noticeable. The location of the infection source was found to greatly affect the infection spreading as well. The paper gives recommendations on the minimum air change rate to keep the infection spreading potentials to a minimum considering different times the passengers stay in the wagon.

Implemented indoor airborne transmission mitigation strategies during COVID-19: a systematic review

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Numerical modelling of ventilation strategies for mitigating cough particles transmission and infection risk in hospital isolation rooms

“…It is therefore imperative to strike a balance between air changes per hour (ACH) ventilation and space constraints and resource availability. [2][3][4][5] Furthermore, recent studies, for instance a review done by Zhang et al, 6 and Pei and Taylor, 7 have highlighted the importance of environmental factors in the spread of COVID-19. One study found that indoor environments with poor ventilation may increase the risk of transmission by allowing for the accumulation of viral particles in the air.…”

Simulation analysis of passengers’ rescheduling strategies in metro station under COVID-19

“…The metro companies in many cities implemented effective and feasible measures for pandemic prevention according the previous experience. The routine measures include temperature measurement, keeping disinfection and ventilation, shutting down the metro lines in high-risk areas ( Gupta et al, 2020 , El-Salamony et al, 2021 , Liu et al, 2020 ). However, few measures for passengers’ rescheduling and specific organization management have been taken on how to reduce the high density of passenger flows in metro station.…”