Aerosol concentration and airflow distribution assessment in a multi-zone indoor space with mechanical ventilation: field measurements and CFD simulations

In the past decades, numerous studies were performed to investigate the effects of mechanical ventilation system (MV) on aerosol concentration in indoor environments. However, few attention was given to the prediction of aerosol concentration in multi-zone indoor spaces, where the distribution and migration of aerosol particles are significantly influenced by airflow patterns, room dimensions and geometries, supply and exhaust locations, internal partitions, and so on. This study aims at analyzing the aerosol concentration and airflow pattern in a players’ dressing room (composed of three-connected spaces) of a stadium by means of Computational Fluid Dynamcs (CFD) simulations. The simulations are performed with Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) approach by means of passive scalar (PS), drift flux (DF), and Eulerian-Lagrangian (EL) methods. The aerosol concentration (c) from field measurements, previously performed in the same indoor environment, is then compared to simulated (CFD) data. The comparison shows that the deviation between the measured and simulated data is of about 37% for the PS method, 24.3% for the DF method, and 18% for the EL method.