A Simulation-Based Approach To Mitigate Disease Transmission Risk From Aerosol Particles In Buildings

Understanding the role of architectural design in identifying the risk of disease transmission is essential for creating resilience in buildings. Here we used a Grasshopper simulation workflow to execute aerosol disease transmission risk estimation coupled with EnergyPlus simulation inputs to assess the impact of architectural factors on the risk of COVID-19 transmission. We simulated the risk for a simple geometry with different window configurations and geographic locations. We observed that increasing the fractional opening of a single window as well as cross ventilation design can increase the outdoor air exchange, which corresponds to substantially reduced risk of disease transmission. Furthermore, indoor relative humidity in cold climates can be significantly lower in winter due to the impacts of increased mechanical heating which translates to an increased risk of infection. We demonstrate that early architectural design decisions implicate the resultant risk of disease transmission indoors that should be prioritized in the future.