TS10 Mitigating Bioaerosol Spread Through Computational Fluid Dynamics

Presented by: Maria King and Sunil Kumar

Location: Mesilla

Abstract: Despite the growing awareness of the role indoor environments play in pathogen transmission, the mechanisms by which environmental factors influence the spread of airborne bioparticles such as viruses, bacteria, and fungi remain largely unclear. The path that pathogens take through the air from their source to recipients or surfaces, as well as their survival, is influenced by numerous factors. HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) systems can transport infectious aerosols, contribute to the resuspension of bioparticles, and potentially trigger resistance in pathogens through mechanisms that are not yet fully understood. HVAC systems are often seen as improving indoor sanitation by maintaining lower temperatures and clean airflow. Research has shown that ventilation significantly affects disease transmission, leading to optimized airflow patterns based on room design to minimize pathogen spread. However, aerosolized bioparticles can be transported from contaminated areas to clean ones via airflow, impacting surfaces along the way. The process of being airborne imposes osmotic and mechanical stress on bacteria, potentially triggering their defense mechanisms. The resuspension of bioaerosols in ventilation airflow can alter their behavior, including the infectivity of viruses. Thus, it is crucial to optimize airflow patterns in facilities to minimize the entrainment of bioaerosols.

Complex indoor and outdoor environments with critical obstructions can be modeled to track and mitigate the movement of bioaerosols, which enter the air through respiratory events or natural erosion and spread to nearby areas and communities. By leveraging spatial and temporal data obtained through bioaerosol collection, analysis, and computational airflow simulation, the layout and mechanical floorplan of facilities can be modified to control the transport and behavior of bioaerosols. This opens new avenues for engineering interventions to combat their spread. This workshop aims to bridge the knowledge gap between ventilation airflow characteristics and bioaerosol distribution and transmission, thereby enabling the development of mitigation strategies to reduce the risk of airborne infections.

Presenter Bio: Maria King is Associate Professor at the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, and the Director of the Aerosol Technology Laboratory at Texas A&M University. She is an expert in the collection and analysis of aerosolized nano- and bioparticles, including viruses, bacteria and fungi, and the application of chemistry and molecular biology for real-time aerosol quantification and microbiome analysis. Her research focuses on using molecular dynamics design to delineate environmental factors that affect virus attachment and trigger the development of antibiotic resistance in bacteria and performing computational air flow modeling to reduce the resuspension and spread of pathogenic bacteria and infectious viruses in critical infrastructures. She has published numerous papers and book chapters and enjoys teaching the stacked graduate course “Bioaerosols and Modeling” and two core classes, “Thermodynamics” and “Fundamentals of Biological Engineering”.

Presenter Bio: Sunil Kumar is an Associate Research Scientist at the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering at Texas A&M University. He is an expert in the experimental and computational Heat and Mass Transfer, aerosol technologies, and drying of porous materials. He has simulated critical facilities such as hospital rooms, fabrication rooms of food processing facilities, and full-scale plants for characterizing contaminated droplets’ movement using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). He investigated the use of low-flow air curtains and partitions to prevent the spreading of droplets and hence COVID-19. He has delivered numerous talks at conferences and invited talks. He has published papers on energy, phase change materials, and bioaerosols and enjoys teaching the graduate course “Bioaerosols and Modeling” for CFD modeling.