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

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%.