A review of different ventilation methods for controlling the transmission of the virus during the COVID-19 pandemic

School of Energy and Environmental Engineering, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin, 300401, China.

^* Corresponding author: xfkong@hebut.edu.cn.

Abstract

With the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping worldwide, much attention has been paid to infectious viruses. Because of the different sizes of pathogen-carrying droplets exhaled by individuals infected with COVID-19, the influence of gravity and inertia on the droplets varies, which leads to different modes of transmission of the virus. Ventilation changes the air distribution in a room, and affects virus transmission. An appropriate ventilation method that reduces the floating time of viruses and the exposure rate of the human body should be selected. Although previous studies have extensively reviewed methods to reduce the airborne transmission of viruses, research on ventilation methods remain limited. This review aimed to explore a ventilation mode that could ensure the thermal comfort and maintain low exposure and infection rates in the human body. This study investigated the transmission modes of the virus and the importance of particle size. The effects of mixing ventilation, displacement ventilation, impinging jet ventilation, and stratum ventilation on the removal of different particle sizes and applications at various locations were compared. The results of this study can contribute to reducing the indoor virus concentrations during the COVID-19 pandemic.