ArticlePhysics of fluids (Woodbury, N.Y. : 1994)2021
Airborne transmission of COVID-19 and mitigation using box fan air cleaners in a poorly ventilated classroom.
Article in Physics of fluids (Woodbury, N.Y. : 1994), 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed.
- Fluid dynamical pathways of airborne transmission while waiting in a line.Science advances · 2025Article
- A CFD study on the effect of portable air cleaner placement on airborne infection control in a classroom.Environmental science. Processes & impacts · 2024Article
- On the efficacy of facial masks to suppress the spreading of pathogen-carrying saliva particles during human respiratory events: Insights gained via high-fidelity numerical modeling.Medical research archives · 2024Article
- Virus-laden droplet nuclei in vortical structures associated with recirculation zones in indoor environments: A possible airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2.Environmental advances · 2023Review
- The impact of retrofitted ventilation approaches on long-range airborne infection risk for lecture room environments: design stage methodology and application.Journal of building engineering · 2023Article
- A review on indoor airborne transmission of COVID-19- modelling and mitigation approaches.Journal of building engineering · 2023Review
- Efficacy of Do-It-Yourself air filtration units in reducing exposure to simulated respiratory aerosols.Building and environment · 2023Article
- Reducing Virus Transmission from Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning Systems of Urban Subways.Toxics · 2022Article
- A new system to prevent SARS-CoV-2 and microorganism air transmission through the air circulation system of endoscopes.Endoscopy international open · 2022Article
- A numerical approach for preventing the dispersion of infectious disease in a meeting room.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- The effect of air purifiers and curtains on aerosol dispersion and removal in multi-patient hospital rooms.Indoor air · 2022Article
- Can 10× cheaper, lower-efficiency particulate air filters and box fans complement High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) purifiers to help control the COVID-19 pandemic?The Science of the total environment · 2022Article
- Ventilation strategies to reduce airborne transmission of viruses in classrooms: A systematic review of scientific literature.Building and environment · 2022Review
- Effects of purifiers on the airborne transmission of droplets inside a bus.Physics of fluids (Woodbury, N.Y. : 1994) · 2022Article
- A Sanitation Argument for Clean Indoor Air: Meeting a Requisite for Safe Public Spaces.Frontiers in public health · 2022Article
- Experimental study of the dispersion of cough-generated droplets from a person going up- or downstairs.AIP advances · 2022Article
- Effect of recirculation zones on the ventilation of a public washroom.Physics of fluids (Woodbury, N.Y. : 1994) · 2021Article
- SARS-CoV-2 transmission in classroom settings: Effects of mitigation, age, and Delta variant.Physics of fluids (Woodbury, N.Y. : 1994) · 2021Article
- Improved estimates of 222 nm far-UVC susceptibility for aerosolized human coronavirus via a validated high-fidelity coupled radiation-CFD code.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Computational study on the transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus through aerosol in an elevator cabin: Effect of the ventilation system.Physics of fluids (Woodbury, N.Y. : 1994) · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Many indoor places, including aged classrooms and offices, prisons, homeless shelters, etc., are poorly ventilated but resource-limited to afford expensive ventilation upgrades or commercial air purification systems, raising concerns on the safety of opening activities in these places in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic. To address this challenge, using computational fluid dynamics, we conducted a systematic investigation of airborne transmission in a classroom equipped with a single horizontal unit ventilator (HUV) and evaluate the performance of a low-cost box fan air cleaner for risk mitigation. Our study shows that placing box fan air cleaners in the classroom results in a substantial reduction of airborne transmission risk across the entire space. The air cleaner can achieve optimal performance when placed near the asymptomatic patient. However, without knowing the location of the patient, the performance of the cleaner is optimal near the HUV with the air flowing downwards. In addition, we find that it is more efficient in reducing aerosol concentration and spread in the classroom by adding air cleaners in comparison with raising the flow rate of HUV alone. The number and placement of air cleaners need to be adjusted to maintain their efficacy for larger classrooms and to account for the thermal gradient associated with a human thermal plume and hot ventilation air during cold seasons. Overall, our study shows that box fan air cleaners can serve as an effective low-cost alternative for mitigating airborne transmission risks in poorly ventilated spaces.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.