For the first time, American physicists have built a hydrodynamic model of the spread of coronavirus in air-conditioned rooms and have identified two new potential pathways for viral particles in the air, reports zakon.kz with reference to RIA Novosti.

According to the research results, despite the fact that for more than a year the attention of scientists around the world has been riveted to the new coronavirus, the physical processes and ways of its spread have not been sufficiently studied.

Researchers at the University of Minnesota built a hydrodynamic model of the movement of the virus and quantified how various environmental factors affect transmission routes and the risk of airborne infection. The authors paid special attention to the role of ventilation and air conditioning in confined spaces using the example of a specific restaurant in Guangzhou, China, which became one of the hotbeds of infection at the height of the pandemic.

They reportedly used the advanced computing power of a supercomputer to do this, making it possible for the first time to simulate the capture of viral particles in complex streams that occur when cold air from air conditioners interacts with a hot plume rising from a table.

Our simulations take into account a variety of physical parameters, including air flow, thermal effect, aerosol transport under turbulence, limited air conditioning filtration efficiency, and complex space geometry. All of these play a role in the transmission of the virus through the air. This is made possible by the advanced computational tools used in our simulations that can capture complex flows and transport of aerosols, as well as other multiphysics factors involved in real-world conditions, according to the study leader Jiaron Hong in a press release from the American Institute of Physics.

Although many digital simulations of COVID-19 transmission over the air have been performed recently, this work is the first case of highly accurate simulations based on a real-world situation. The authors had the opportunity to compare the obtained indicators with the statistics of the actually sick visitors of the restaurant selected for the model.

Using flow pattern analysis and aerosol trajectory tracing, the researchers identified two additional potential airborne transmission routes that are currently overlooked: the flow of warm aerosols rising from under the table and the reverse flow of air through air conditioners with limited filtration efficiency. … In this regard, the authors propose to introduce additional security measures against COVID-19 in closed air-conditioned rooms: shielding the space under tables and increasing the filtration efficiency of air conditioners.