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. 2022 Aug 24;29(7):2415–2430. doi: 10.1007/s11771-022-5072-z

Impact of mechanical ventilation control strategies based on non-steady-state and steady-state Wells-Riley models on airborne transmission and building energy consumption

基于非稳态和稳态Wells-Riley 模型的机械通风控制策略对于疾病空气传播和建筑能耗的影响

Hao-han Sha 1, Xin Zhang 1, Da-hai Qi 1,✉
PMCID: PMC9399565  PMID: 36034192

Abstract

Ventilation is an effective solution for improving indoor air quality and reducing airborne transmission. Buildings need sufficient ventilation to maintain a low infection risk but also need to avoid an excessive ventilation rate, which may lead to high energy consumption. The Wells-Riley (WR) model is widely used to predict infection risk and control the ventilation rate. However, few studies compared the non-steady-state (NSS) and steady-state (SS) WR models that are used for ventilation control. To fill in this research gap, this study investigates the effects of the mechanical ventilation control strategies based on NSS/SS WR models on the required ventilation rates to prevent airborne transmission and related energy consumption. The modified NSS/SS WR models were proposed by considering many parameters that were ignored before, such as the initial quantum concentration. Based on the NSS/SS WR models, two new ventilation control strategies were proposed. A real building in Canada is used as the case study. The results indicate that under a high initial quantum concentration (e.g., 0.3 q/m3) and no protective measures, SS WR control underestimates the required ventilation rate. The ventilation energy consumption of NSS control is up to 2.5 times as high as that of the SS control.

Key words: building ventilation, Wells-Riley model, building energy consumption, airborne transmission

Contributors

SHA Hao-han wrote the first draft of the manuscript. ZHANG Xin conducted the literature review. QI Da-hai provided the concept and edited the draft of manuscript. SHA Hao-han and QI Da-hai replied to reviewers’ comments and revised the final version.

Footnotes

Foundation item: Project(RGPIN-2019-05824) supported by the Start-up Fund of Université de Sherbrooke and Discovery Grants of Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)

Conflict of interest

SHA Hao-han, ZHANG Xin, and QI Da-hai declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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