A CFD-Based Design of S-Shaped Nozzle Attachment for Aircraft Cabin Gaspers

Abstract

Cough has been the primary mode for transmitting airborne respiratory diseases as the droplets expelled are suspended in the air longer in closed environments like aircraft cabins. Air jets from personal gasper nozzles are studied using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations to understand the flow pattern, which is of high velocity, very narrow, and susceptible to enhanced air mixing. An S-shaped nozzle attachment uses higher-order Bezier curves to spread the flow across the passenger’s face to form a shield to protect the breathing zone from foreign particles. The design of experiments theory, the Box – Behnken design, was employed to understand the influence of nozzle profile geometric parameters on the output criteria through CFD simulations. The numerical simulations were performed on the final design, which shows that the newly designed nozzle attachment can distribute the narrow jet from existing personal gasper nozzles into a curved air curtain across the passenger’s face.