Modelling ozone disinfection process for creating COVID-19 secure spaces
International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow
ISSN: 0961-5539
Article publication date: 19 May 2021
Issue publication date: 3 January 2022
Abstract
Purpose
A novel modelling approach is proposed to study ozone distribution and destruction in indoor spaces. The level of ozone gas concentration in the air, confined within an indoor space during an ozone-based disinfection process, is analysed. The purpose of this work is to investigate how ozone is distributed in time within an enclosed space.
Design/methodology/approach
A computational methodology for predicting the space- and time-dependent ozone concentration within the room across the consecutive steps of the disinfection process (generation, dwelling and destruction modes) is proposed. The emission and removal of ozone from the air volume are possible by means of a generator located in the middle of the room. This model also accounts for ozone reactions and decay kinetics, and gravity effect on the air.
Finding
This work is validated against experimental measurements at different locations in the room during the disinfection cycle. The numerical results are in good agreement with the experimental data. This comparison proves that the presented methodology is able to provide accurate predictions of the time evolution of ozone concentration at different locations of the enclosed space.
Originality/value
This study introduces a novel computational methodology describing solute transport by turbulent flow for predicting the level of ozone concentration within a closed room during a COVID-19 disinfection process. A parametric study is carried out to evaluate the impact of system settings on the time variation of ozone concentration within the space considered.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the financial support received from the Welsh Government under the Collaborative Research and Innovation Support Programme (CRISP20-001) and the Ser Cymru III – Tackling COVID 19 fund (Project No. 095). The authors thank the ASTUTE2020 project for allowing access to Fluent software and the SPECIFIC Innovation and Knowledge Centre at Swansea University for facilitating the experimental work in the Active Office building.
Citation
Tamaddon Jahromi, H., Rolland, S., Jones, J., Coccarelli, A., Sazonov, I., Kershaw, C., Tizaoui, C., Holliman, P., Worsley, D., Thomas, H. and Nithiarasu, P. (2022), "Modelling ozone disinfection process for creating COVID-19 secure spaces", International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, Vol. 32 No. 1, pp. 353-363. https://doi.org/10.1108/HFF-12-2020-0797
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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