The CO-TRACE project brings together researchers working at the Universities of Cambridge, Surrey and Imperial College London, to assess the risk of airborne COVID-19 transmission in schools and evaluate the effectiveness of mitigation measures.
- This will be done by developing techniques to assess the absolute risk of infection in a given indoor space, using field studies in primary and secondary schools, complemented by laboratory experiments and computational fluid dynamics to elucidate the flow patterns responsible for airborne transport.
- The understanding generated will underpin recent developments in infection modelling to predict the likelihood of airborne transmission within schools.
- The project will reduce the uncertainties associated with airborne transmission routes and provide evidence to evaluate mitigation measures. The scenarios we will investigate include changes to ventilation, classroom lay-out and occupancy profiles. The methodology will facilitate application to offices, restaurants, shops etc.
Computational fluid dynamics (cfd): An example
Streamlines of the ventilating flow in an idealised naturally ventilated primary school classroom with heat loads representative of occupants, equipment and wintertime heating. Air enters the room from the bottom vent, is heated up by the distributed heat patch on the floor and exits through the top vent. Colours represent how long a fluid parcel has been in the room.
Other air pollution projects
TAPAS Network
TAPAS Network
TAPAS Network
Tackling air pollution at school: Working together to deliver healthy schools