Keeping COVID-19 out of classrooms: Open windows, use glass screens in front of desks

As the COVID-19 virus continues to spread around the globe, studying aerosol and droplet transport within different environments can help establish effective, physics-informed measures for virus mitigation. One of the most important environments to gain a rapid understanding about COVID-19's spread is inside the school classroom.

Flow velocity distribution and particle size are key in aerosol transport, which is one of the main ways COVID-19 spreads, when aerosol particles are released during exhalation, talking, coughing, or sneezing.

In Physics of Fluids, from AIP Publishing, University of New Mexico researchers used computational fluid-particle dynamics to explore aerosol transport within an air-conditioned classroom model. They discovered opening windows increases the fraction of particles that exit the system by nearly 40 percent, while also reducing aerosol transmission between people within.

"Nearly 70 percent of exhaled 1-micron particles exit the system when windows are open," said Khaled Talaat, a research assistant in the Department of Nuclear Engineering at the UNM School of Engineering and one of the authors. "And air conditioning removes up to 50 percent of particles released during exhalation and talking, but the rest get deposited onto surfaces within the room and may reenter the air."

Read the full story from The University of New Mexico here.