Potential of physical barriers integrated with personal exhaust ventilation in decreasing airborne infection risk for people

Abstract

A new approach was presented in this study that combines partition screens and personal exhaust ventilation to reduce the risk of infection transmission among individuals seated closely together at short distances. The effectiveness of this approach was experimentally studied in a test room using N2O as a tracer gas to simulate pollutant dispersion from an infected person. The concentration of N2O was measured at three different points near the source location. The results showed that using partitions alone might increase the probability of virus transmission compared to the case without partitions. However, combining personal exhaust with partitions significantly reduces the infection risk.