Aerosol transmission risk of COVID-19 when passengers move slowly in a line at the airport terminal

Abstract

The airport terminal with high numbers of occupied passengers has potentially become high risk region for aerosol transmission of COVID-19. In this paper, the Eulerian-Lagrangian approach and realizable k–ε turbulence model is used to numerically simulate the airflow organization and aerosol transmission when passengers move slowly in a line. During the aerosol transmission period, evaporation is also enrolled as it is a key factor influencing particle size distribution at the beginning of aerosol transmission from the human. In addition, the process of passenger moving in the airport terminal is realized by employing dynamic mesh algorithms. The results of the study show that people who are behind the infected person during the queuing movement have a higher risk of infection than those who are in front. In addition, the disturbance of people walking has an important influence on the distribution of aerosols.