Computational fluid dynamics challenge on indoor dispersion of pathogen-laden aerosols

Pallares J, Fabregat A, Lavrinenko A, Marques N, Santos B, Mosca G, Vega PO, Ravnik J, Vovk N, Fraga B, Monka A, Martínez M, Mestre-Curto N, Souza FJd, Fontes D, Jüngling N, Niessner J, Castilla R, García-Vílchez M, Fletcher DF, Inthavong K, Hriberšek M, Steinmann P, Wedel J, Duchaine F, Sankurantripati S, Amari L, Janiga G, Marchioli C, Cito S (2025)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2025

Journal

Physics of Fluids American Institute of Physics (AIP)

Book Volume: 37

Article Number: 025226

Journal Issue: 2

DOI: 10.1063/5.0252665

Abstract

This paper presents and discusses the results of the “2024 International Computational Fluid Dynamics Challenge on the long-range indoor dispersion of pathogen-laden aerosols” aimed at assessing the ability of different computational codes and turbulence models to reproduce the dispersion of particles produced by a turbulent natural convection flow enclosed in a room sized cubical cavity. A total of 12 research groups from ten different countries have conducted 15 simulations of the same flow configuration by solving the Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations, the unsteady Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) equations or using scale adaptive simulations (SAS), large-eddy simulations (LES), or hybrid (URANS-LES) techniques. Results for the velocity field and the particle dispersion provided by the different simulations are compared extensively, including the reference results provided by a direct numerical simulation (DNS). In general, LES and hybrid methods reproduce the time-averaged flow field correctly, the spatial distribution of the turbulence kinetic energy, and the particle dispersion. The performance of SAS is similar to that of LES and hybrid methods while the predictions of the RANS and URANS simulations exhibit larger deviations with respect to DNS. In general, the particle dispersion is better reproduced by simulations that capture correctly the spatial distribution of the turbulence kinetic energy.

Authors with CRIS profile

Paul Steinmann Lehrstuhl für Technische Mechanik (LTM) Jana Wedel Lehrstuhl für Technische Mechanik (LTM)

Involved external institutions

Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV) ES Spain (ES) BuildWind SRL BE Belgium (BE) University of Maribor (UM) / Univerza v Mariboru SI Slovenia (SI) University of Birmingham GB United Kingdom (GB) EURECAT Centre Tecnològic de Catalunya ES Spain (ES) Universidade Federal Uberlândia BR Brazil (BR) Westmont College US United States (USA) (US) Hochschule Heilbronn DE Germany (DE) Polytechnic University of Catalonia / Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya · BarcelonaTech (UPC) / Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña ES Spain (ES) University of Sydney (USYD) AU Australia (AU) RMIT University AU Australia (AU) Centre Européen de Recherche et de Formation Avancée en Calcul Scientifique (CERFACS) FR France (FR) Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg DE Germany (DE) University of Udine / Università degli Studi di Udine IT Italy (IT) FS Dynamics (Portugal) PT Portugal (PT)

How to cite

APA:

Pallares, J., Fabregat, A., Lavrinenko, A., Marques, N., Santos, B., Mosca, G.,... Cito, S. (2025). Computational fluid dynamics challenge on indoor dispersion of pathogen-laden aerosols. Physics of Fluids, 37(2). https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0252665

MLA:

Pallares, Jordi, et al. "Computational fluid dynamics challenge on indoor dispersion of pathogen-laden aerosols." Physics of Fluids 37.2 (2025).

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