Abstract
The COVID-19 outbreak has shown the significance of ventilation and air conditioning systems in mitigating the transmission of the virus. Increasing air supply volume and utilizing indoor air purifiers are both effective measures to reduce the risk of infection. However, the specific air volume requirements in primary return air systems considering the impact of air purifiers installed within these systems have not been extensively studied. In this paper, the pathogenic aerosol emission rate was utilized to evaluate inhalation probability, taking into account the air purifier's removal efficiency. The notion of safe duration was additionally introduced as a criterion for quantifying indoor health and safety. A novel ventilation calculation method for different airborne infections to adjust safe duration was also presented. The findings suggested that the safe duration was mostly influenced by human-related factors, specifically occupant density and the effectiveness of facial masks in providing protection. When occupant density exceeded 0.35 people/m2, wearing facial masks with a higher protection coefficient was more effective in improving indoor safety and health than reducing occupant density. Moreover, enhancing the filtration efficacy of the air conditioning system's purifier can provide a level of protection comparable to wearing a regular mask.
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