Air Quality lessons learned from COVID-19

We have learned recently how indoor air quality affects our well-being, performance, and ability to concentrate. The past 18 months of the global COVID-19 pandemic has taught us the importance of fresh air circulation in mitigating airborne transmission of viruses. Nevertheless, the removal of harmful aerosols remains a challenge to manage and to control in our everyday environments. This fact still leads to high uncertainties in the setup of suitable mitigation concepts and in the decision about appropriate ventilation systems or risk-minimizing office occupancy rates.

In this workshop, we will illustrate how results from CFD simulation with OpenFOAM® can be used to answer these uncertainties, in correlation and verification with measured values from sensors and how this can be used to inform decision making in enclosures. We will discuss to what extent this approach is suitable to address the need for effective ventilation configurations for the highest air quality in closed spaces and under various conditions.

This mini-workshop is aimed at the importance and practical value of CFD simulations

• Presenting stakeholder studies on the correlation of sensor data with CFD simulations
• Consideration of ventilation, occupancy, and people’s activity in an enclosure
• Identify end-users (stakeholder case studies) who will benefit from combining sensor data and digital simulation to make better informed choices for ventilation configuration and management in enclosed spaces
• Demonstrating a cloud-based Application for non-CFD experts

Presentations

• CFD modeling of IAQ and ventilation effectiveness assessment in an open plan office, Ana Cross, AHU Product Manager at Elta Fans, Ltd
• CFD modelling for Internal Air Quality, Pawan Ghildiyal, Senior Engineer, ESI Group
• Engineering infection controls, Prof Anthony Fisher MBE MD PhD, Consultant Clinical Scientist, Liverpool University Hospitals and Frank Mills BSc(Hons) FCIBSE FIMechE MASHRAE, Chartered professional engineering specialist, Frank Mills Consulting Engineers Ltd
• Hands-on to the environmental simulation with a prepared example ventilation, Dr. Sebastien Vilfayeau, Team Leader CFD, ESI Group