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.
Scaled lab experiment of a single occupant in a room with ideal displacement ventilation. The experiments take place in a water bath and the person’s body heat and breath are simulated by introducing water of varying densities. The person’s silhouette is shown for illustrative purposes only. The darker regions of this shadowgraph image near the ceiling indicate increased concentration of exhaled breath which is significant if the occupant is infectious. The study of ventilation flows and concentration distributions in these small scale experiments can inform flows our understanding of full-scale flows and the dispersion of the virus in indoor settings.
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.
Tackling air pollution at school: Working together to deliver healthy schools