Impact of the visitor walking speed and glass barriers on airflow and Bioaerosol particles distribution in the typical open tomb

Abstract

With the rapid development of modern tourism, the contamination of cultural heritage including human spiritual civilization by visitors has increased, particularly for precious murals. In this study, the Bioaerosol Particles in air were found to be an important source of contamination on murals by internal transcribed spacer rRNA gene-based sequences. Moreover, computational fluid dynamics was applied to further study the influence of visitor walking speed on airflow and Bioaerosol Particles distribution in a typical open tomb. The accuracy of the results was verified by field experiments, including environmental parameter monitoring and Bioaerosol Particles collection. The fairly mature Omega vortex identification method was introduced to analyse the airflow changes and Bioaerosol Particles migration as the visitor walked at three different speeds. Furthermore, the effects of glass barriers were evaluated neutrally. The results showed that the Bioaerosol Particles migrated around the visitor while walking, contaminating the murals. After walking, the number of Bioaerosol Particles deposited on murals increased and was approximately positively correlated with walking speed. The amount of Bioaerosol Particles deposited decreased significantly when barriers were installed near the walls. This study provides a reference for the sustainable protection and inheritance of the history and civilization of mankind in modern cities.