Numerical investigation of the effect of macro control measures on epidemic transport via a coupled PDE crowd flow - epidemic spreading dynamics model

• An extended approach to the macroscopic modeling and simulation of pedestrian flow in closed spaces, coupled with contagion spreading is presented. • The effect of employment of macro control measures, which may be implemented through real-time manipulation is numerically investigated. • The effects of ventilation airflow rate/direction, maximum average crowd speed, and average distances among pedestrians are studied to understand their individual influence on transmission dynamics. This work aims to provide an approach to the macroscopic modeling and simulation of pedestrian flow, coupled with contagion spreading, for a numerical investigation of the effect of certain macro-control measures on epidemic transport dynamics. Numerical approximations are considered for the coupled model along with numerical tests and results. In particular, we investigate the effect of employment of different, epidemics transport control measures in real time. Such simulations of disease spreading in a moving crowd can potentially provide valuable information about the risks of infection in relevant situations and support the design of systematic intervention/control measures.