RP-1512 -- CFD Resource Decisions in Particle Transport Modeling PDF

The report presents study results for the ASRHAE funded Research Project 1512, "CFD resource decisions in particle transport modeling". The objectives of this study are to:

- Investigate infectious particle dispersion from a human cough and typical indoor sources
- Compare RANS (Reynolds Average Navier-Stokes)-Lagrangian and LES (Large Eddy Simulation)-Lagrangian particle modeling methods for representative indoor airflows
- Analyze the trade-offs between accuracy and computational expense for the two methods and identify scenarios where the more affordable RANS-Lagrangian method provides satisfactory accuracy
- Examine the critical parameters for particle modeling methods concerning the characteristics of disease-bearing particle transport in indoor environments.

The project is based on experimental and numerical results generated specifically for this project. Experiments were conducted in full scale test rooms equipped with state-of-the-art aerosol instrumentation and environmental control systems. Simulations were conducted using ANSYS Fluent and StarCCM+ CFD software. In simulations, a k-RNG model was used as a representative of RANS models, while the Dynamic Smagorinsky Subgrid Scale model was applied in the LES simulation.