Macroscopic Modeling and Simulation-Based Investigation of Epidemics Transport Dynamics in the Presence of Ventilation⁎

Abstract

We demonstrate the epidemics transport effect in closed spaces, performing different numerical experiments via development of a coupled, macroscopic partial differential equation (PDE) model of crowd flow, epidemics spreading dynamics, and ventilation air flow dynamics. We present numerical approximations for the coupled model with which we perform different numerical tests. In particular, we study the effect of different ventilation rates in epidemics transport (in time and space), also quantifying the infection risk via computing the total number of exposed individuals (in time and space), predicted by the model. We then discuss how the model used and the numerical results obtained could be utilized, in certain scenarios, for design of epidemics transport control strategies via manipulation of the ventilation air-flow field.