Post-COVID ventilation design : Infection risk-based target ventilation rates and point source ventilation effectiveness

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A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä

Date

2023-10-01

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en

Pages

13

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Energy and Buildings, Volume 296

Abstract

Ventilation, air filtration and disinfection have been found to be the main engineering measures to control the airborne respiratory infection transmission in shared indoor spaces. Wells-Riley model modifications allow to calculate the infection risk probability, but gaps in viral load data, risk control methods and dealing with incomplete mixing have resulted in ventilation recommendations falling short to consider activity and room specific viral loads and actual air distribution systems deviating from fully mixing. In this study a new infection risk-based ventilation design method operating with space category specific target ventilation rates and point source ventilation effectiveness is proposed. The method introduces the following novelties: i) explicit target ventilation rate equations depending on number of occupants and room volume derived for selected room categories ii) implementation of pre-symptomatic period infection risk control iii) point source ventilation effectiveness application to calculate the design ventilation rate for actual air distribution system iv) ventilation effectiveness measurement method with at least two point source locations developed and tested with laboratory and field measurements. Results show that in classrooms and offices existing Category I ventilation is enough in many cases, but higher ventilation is needed in meeting rooms, restaurants, and gyms where also occupancy reduction and advanced air distribution can be considered for feasible ventilation design.

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Funding Information: Estonian Centre of Excellence in Zero Energy and Resource Efficient Smart Buildings and Districts, ZEBE (grant 2014-2020.4.01.15-0016) funded by the European Regional Development Fund, EU Horizon 2020 SmartLivingEPC project (Grant Agreement number: 101069639) and Finnish Government's analysis, assessment, and research project ILMIRA, have supported this research. Nordic Ventilation Group and REHVA Technology and Research Committee COVID-19 Task Force are greatly acknowledged for support to develop this ventilation design method. Funding Information: Estonian Centre of Excellence in Zero Energy and Resource Efficient Smart Buildings and Districts, ZEBE (grant 2014-2020.4.01.15-0016) funded by the European Regional Development Fund, EU Horizon 2020 SmartLivingEPC project (Grant Agreement number: 101069639) and Finnish Government's analysis, assessment, and research project ILMIRA, have supported this research. Nordic Ventilation Group and REHVA Technology and Research Committee COVID-19 Task Force are greatly acknowledged for support to develop this ventilation design method. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Authors

Keywords

Air distribution, Air quality index, Contaminant removal effectiveness, Event reproduction number, Health-based ventilation, Pre-symptomatic period risk control, Tracer gas, Virus removal

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Citation

Kurnitski, J, Kiil, M, Mikola, A, Võsa, K V, Aganovic, A, Schild, P & Seppänen, O 2023, ' Post-COVID ventilation design : Infection risk-based target ventilation rates and point source ventilation effectiveness ', Energy and Buildings, vol. 296, 113386 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2023.113386