E X A M P L E S . O F . C U R R E N T . R E S E A R C H


Infectious Disease Transmission in Commercial Airliner Cabins


Left: Simulated distribution of particles from a coughing passenger in an airliner cabin with gaspers off, Right: Contaminant distribution in the cabin with gaspers on
Research Assistant: Ruoyu You

Infectious diseases, such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and avian flu, can cause significant social and economic disruption. The transmissions of infectious diseases could take place in commericial airliner cabins. The effort of this project is to use suitable computer models for simulating person-to-person contaminant transport in commercial airliner cabins. The turbulence modeling methods used are Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equation (RANS) modeling, unsteady RANS modeling, large eddy simulation, and detached eddy simulation. A particle velocimetry and ultra-sonic anenometers are used to obtain air distribution data for validating the numerical results with success. Our current effort is to identify if gaspers could be used to prevent the infectious disease transmissions.

 

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