Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Subscription or Fee Access

An Alternative Air Distribution System in Economy-Class Passenger Airplane for Infection Reduction


(*) Corresponding author


Authors' affiliations


DOI: https://doi.org/10.15866/irease.v14i5.19873

Abstract


Airplane transportation has played a major role in the spread of the new corona virus COVID-19 all over the world. The current air distribution system used in airplanes circulation assists motion of contaminants and hence spreads airborne diseases. In this work, a new air distribution system is proposed. A combined Under Floor Air Distribution (UFAD) and a new Personalized Ventilation (PV) systems with a front-back design has been adopted such that it satisfies thermal comfort for the passengers, as well as providing an air shield between the passengers in order to prevent the spread of airborne contaminants. Two configurations have been made for the economy class in a passenger airplane. Both had the same UFAD system, and PV system with air inlet located at the back of the ahead seat, but with different air inlet angles, normal to the seat back and inclined by 45°. It has been found out that the second configuration provides better control for contaminant spreading, as well as better thermal comfort, with predictive mean vote of 0.6, and predicted percentage dissatisfied of 17.6%.
Copyright © 2021 Praise Worthy Prize - All rights reserved.

Keywords


Airplane Air Conditioning; COVID-19; Infection Control; Thermal Comfort

Full Text:

PDF


References


Martinez, I. Aircraft environmental control, lecture notes, 1-26 (2014).

ICAO - MID COVID-19 Website (accessed June 5, 2020).
URL: https://www.icao.int/MID/Pages/COVID19/COVID19.aspx

ICAO - Economic Impacts of COVID-19 on Civil Aviation. (accessed June 5, 2020) URL:
https://www.icao.int/sustainability/Pages/Economic-Impacts-of-COVID-19.aspx

Airbus website (Restricted access, accessed: June 7, 2020). URL:
https://w3.airbus.com/1H43/MEFO_AW/ISI/MjEuMDAuMDAxMTk%3D/article.html

European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, Risk assessment guidelines for infectious diseases transmitted on aircraft, Technical report (2009).

US Centre for Disease Control website. (accessed: June 7,2020)
URL: https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/air/index.html

E.A. Nardell, J. Keegan, S.A. Cheney, and S.C. Etkind, Airborne infection. Theoretical limits of protection achievable by building ventilation. Am Rev Respir Dis, 144 (2) 302-306 (1991).
https://doi.org/10.1164/ajrccm/144.2.302

R.L. Riley, and E.A. Nardell, Clearing the air. The theory and application of ultraviolet air disinfection, Am Rev Respir Dis, 139 (5) 1286-1294 (1989).
https://doi.org/10.1164/ajrccm/139.5.1286

Zgodavová, Z., Rozenberg, R., Szabo, S., Sabo, J., The Impact of Changes of Psychophysiological Factors on the Flight Crew Performance, (2019) International Review of Aerospace Engineering (IREASE), 12 (3), pp. 150-158.
https://doi.org/10.15866/irease.v12i3.16480

M. H. Mahmood, M. Sultan, and T. Miyazaki, Study on Water-Vapor Adsorption onto Polymer and Carbon Based Adsorbents for Air-Conditioning Applications, Evergreen, 6 (3) 29-39 (2019).
https://doi.org/10.5109/2349297

M. T Kibria, M.A. Islam, B.B. Saha, T. Nakagawa, and S. Mizuno, Assessment of Environmental Impact for Air-Conditioning Systems in Japan Using HFC Based Refrigerants, Evergreen, 6 (3) 246-253 (2019).
https://doi.org/10.5109/2349301

H. Han, M. Hatta, and H. Rahman, Smart Ventilation for Energy Conservation in Buildings, Evergreen, 6 (1) 44-51 (2019).
https://doi.org/10.5109/2321005

Aviation Stack Exchange website. (accessed: June 8, 2020) URL:
http://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/1672/how-effective-are-modern-aircraft-at-clearing-smok

P. Fabian, J.J. McDevitt, W.H. DeHaan, R.O.P. Fung, B.J. Cowling, K.H. Chan, G.M. Leung, and D.K. Milton, Influenza Virus in Human Exhaled Breath: An Observational Study, Plos One, 3 (7) e2691 (2008).
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0002691

J. P. Duguid, The size and the duration of air carriage of respiratory droplets and droplet-nucle, J. Hyg. 54471, (1945).

Q.Y. Chen, J.J. McDevitt, J.K. Gupta, B.W. Jones, S.Mazumdar, S.B. Poussou, and J.D. Spengler, Infectious Disease Transmission in Airliner Cabins Technical Report, Report number: RITE-ACER-CoE-2012-01.

J.K. Gupta, C.H. Lin, and Q. Chen, Risk assessment of airborne infectious diseases in aircraft cabins, Indoor Air, 22 (5), 388-395 (2012).
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0668.2012.00773.x

B.G. Wagner, B.J. Coburn, and S. Blower, Calculating the potential for within-flight transmission of influenza A (H1N1), BMC Medicine, 7: 81, (2009).
https://doi.org/10.1186/1741-7015-7-81

G. Cai, J. Teng, and Z. Tian, Modeling And Optimization of Air Distribution Systems for Commercial Aircrafts Using CFD Techniques, 50th AIAA Forum, Tennessee, USA (2012).
https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2012-132

A.K. Melikov, Personalized ventilation, Indoor Air, 14 (7) 157-167 (2004).
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0668.2004.00284.x

P. Zítek, T. Vyhlídal, G. Simeunović, L. Nováková, and J. Čížek, Novel personalized and humidified air supply for airliner passengers, Build. Environ., 45 (11), 2345-2353 (2010).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2010.04.005

Y. Pantelic, J. Sze-To, G.N. Tham, K.W. Chao, Y.H. Christopher, and Y.C.M. Khoo, Personalized ventilation as a control measure for airborne transmissible disease spread, J. R. Soc. Interface, 6, 715-726 (2009).
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2009.0311.focus

Z. Fang, H. Liu, B. Li, and A. Baldwin, Investigation of thermal comfort and the nozzle usage behaviour in aircraft cabins Indoor & Built Env., 28 (1) 118 -131 (2019).
https://doi.org/10.1177/1420326X17739446

R. You, Z. Zhang, X. Zhao, C.H. Lin, D. Wei, J. Liu, and Q. Chen, An innovative personalized displacement ventilation system for airliner cabins, Build Env. 137: 41-50 (2018).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2018.03.057

R. You, C.H. Lin, D. Wei, and Q. Chen, Evaluating the commercial airliner cabin environment with different air distribution systems, Indoor air, 29 (5) 840-853 (2019).
https://doi.org/10.1111/ina.12578

C. Q. Zhang T, Novel Air Distribution Systems for Commercial Aircrafts Cabins, Buildings and environment, Build Env., 2006.

M. J. Tomasz Czarnota, Optimization of Personal Ventilation in Aircrafts, Aalborg, June, 2008.

H. M. and K. E. Farag A., Huzzatin O., Numerical Analysis and Thermal Comfort Optimization of Different Ventilation Systems for Commercial Aircraft Cabins, in IEEE Conference on Aerospace, 2015.

R. Anwar, Air Distribution Systems in Aircraft Cabins., MSc. dissertation, Cairo University, (2015).

J. Anderson, J.D., Modern Compressible Flow: With Historical Perspective, 2, McGraw Hill, New York (1990).

W.S. Zhang, and P. Li, A Personal Air Distribution System with Air Terminals Embedded in Chair 1 Armrests on Commercial Airplanes, Build. Environ., 2012.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2011.04.035

ASHRAE, Standard 55, Thermal Environmental Conditions for Human Occupancy, Atlanta, GA: ASHRAE, (2013).

Ravichandran, A., Storey, J., Kirk, D., A Thermo-Fluid Model of Droplet Evaporation and Pressure Variation in Venturi Liquid-Gas Mixers, (2020) International Review of Aerospace Engineering (IREASE), 13 (3), pp. 108-119.
https://doi.org/10.15866/irease.v13i3.18758

Samara, M., Vashishtha, A., Watanabe, Y., Suzuki, K., Flow-Field and Performance Study of Coaxial Supersonic Nozzles Operating in Hypersonic Environment, (2020) International Review of Aerospace Engineering (IREASE), 13 (1), pp. 25-39.
https://doi.org/10.15866/irease.v13i1.18282

Orjuela, S., Valencia, G., Duarte Forero, J., Computational Fluid Dynamics Study of Blow-By in Light Aircraft Diesel Engines, (2020) International Review of Aerospace Engineering (IREASE), 13 (6), pp. 208-216.
https://doi.org/10.15866/irease.v13i6.18586

Espinel, E., Rojas, J., Florez Solano, E., Computational Fluid Dynamics Study of NACA 0012 Airfoil Performance with OpenFOAM®, (2021) International Review of Aerospace Engineering (IREASE), 14 (4), pp. 201-210.
https://doi.org/10.15866/irease.v14i4.19348

Marchetto, F., Benini, E., Numerical Simulation of Harmonic Pitching Supercritical Airfoils Equipped with Movable Gurney Flaps, (2019) International Review of Aerospace Engineering (IREASE), 12 (3), pp. 109-122.
https://doi.org/10.15866/irease.v12i3.16723

Sugar-Gabor, O., Numerical Study of the Circular Cylinder in Supersonic Ground Effect Conditions, (2018) International Review of Aerospace Engineering (IREASE), 11 (1), pp. 15-26.
https://doi.org/10.15866/irease.v11i1.13696


Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Please send any question about this web site to info@praiseworthyprize.com
Copyright © 2005-2024 Praise Worthy Prize