3D airflow analysis in open-space office environment for identification of the best ventilation strategy for minimizing COVID-19 transmission risk

The rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic can be attributed to the high transmissibility rates of the virus in indoor environments. Inadequate ventilation, commonly associated with high CO2 concentrations, can create favourable conditions for the virus viability and transmission. Thus, the selection of proper ventilation strategies is essential for ensuring the minimization of secondary inhalations and that the exhaled air is directed outside as quickly as possible.

In this paper, a novel methodology is proposed that enables the comparison of different ventilation strategies in terms of minimizing the virus transmissibility risk. Specifically, a 3D model of a real open-space office was designed using the CONTAM-CFD0 software for the calculation of the airflow vectors for all the possible ventilation scenarios. The airflow vectors are then transformed into a directed graph and using tools from graph theory, the ventilation strategies are evaluated in terms of minimizing secondary inhalations and maximizing the exhausted air from exhalations.