Virus Particle Dispersion and Infection Risk Assessment in Aircraft Cabins: A CFD Approach

The work employed computational fluid dynamics to model virus-carrying particle transport mechanisms in a low-cost carrier passenger cabin. The study investigated the effect of virus source location and particle size on particle dynamics and infection risk. The infection risk assessment was conducted based on particle deposition onto surfaces such as passenger bodies and seats. The study found that the direction and velocity magnitude of the airflow in the cabin were almost symmetric about the aisle, with some asymmetry in the velocity magnitude observed due to the coughing passenger's location. Most particles in the cabin were found to be either deposited onto surfaces or removed through the ventilation system within 10 minutes. The study also found that the particle deposition and removal dynamics were strongly affected by the particle source location and the particle size due to the proximity to different surfaces depending on the source location and the propagation distance of the particles, which depends on the gravitational effect based on the size of the particles. The propagation of the particles was found to be mostly contained within the row of the source and two rows in front of the source throughout the 10 minutes. The infection risk assessment indicated a higher risk for passengers seated in the column directly in front of the virus source and for passengers seated on the same side of the aisle as the virus source.