Effects of ventilation on safe occupancy guidelines for indoor workplaces during COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID-19通过感染者通过直接接触或二次接触污染表面产生的液滴传播。感染者在呼吸、说话、打喷嚏和咳嗽时将这些飞沫引入环境。携带COVID-19病毒的气溶胶的产生、发展和随后的传播直接受流体力学的控制，因此应用于制定有效的社会距离指南和其他大流行缓解战略。不幸的是，目前的社会距离建议是基于对大液滴动力学的基本推断，并没有考虑到受各种环境效应、封闭环境的大小等因素影响的较轻液滴云的传播。拟议的研究将采用实验、数值和分析流体力学工具的结合，以制定更可靠的工人距离指南、工人配置和室内工作空间的占用限制，同时考虑到气溶胶产生的综合影响，由于加热、通风和空调（HVAC）系统引起的诱导流动，以及病原体随时间的积累。该提案的结果将对全国工作场所的COVID-19大流行控制产生重大影响，并将更好地为加拿大工业为不可避免的未来流行病和大流行做好准备。

COVID-19 is transmitted through liquid droplets produced by an infected person either through direct contact or secondary contact with contaminated surfaces. Such droplets are introduced into the environment by an infected person during breathing, speaking, sneezing, and coughing. The production, development, and subsequent spread of aerosols carrying COVID-19 viruses are directly governed by fluid mechanics, which should thus be used to develop effective social distancing guidelines and other pandemic mitigation strategies. Unfortunately, the present social distancing recommendations are based on basic extrapolations of large droplet dynamics, and do not take into account the spread of lighter droplet clouds influenced by various ambient effects, the size of the enclosed environment, among other factors. The proposed research will employ a combination of experimental, numerical, and analytical fluid mechanics tools to develop more reliable worker distancing guidelines, worker configurations, and occupancy limits for indoor workspaces taking into account the combined effect of aerosol production, induced flows due to heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, and pathogen accumulation over time. The outcomes of this proposal will have a significant impact on the control of the COVID-19 pandemic at workplaces nationwide, and will better prepare Canadian industry for inevitable future epidemics and pandemics.