HVAC systems for environmental control to minimize the COVID-19 infection

Abstract

The outbreak of pneumonia caused by 2019 Novel Coronavirus arises significant concern for virus transmission and control. The control of the indoor environment or public-enclosed environment is crucial to reduce the risk of infection. Heating, ventilation, air-conditioning (HVAC) systems are used to create a healthy, thermal-comfort indoor environments. Thus, the rational use of HVAC systems is of great importance for the environmental control to reduce infection risk and to improve human wellbeing in the pandemic. In order to satisfy the requirement of better healthy environment and more thermal comfort performance of indoor ventilation system, prevention of indoor pollution is essential, especially considering the purpose of disease transmission resistance. This paper investigated the collective contagion events in enclosed spaces as well as engineering control against virus spread with ventilation systems for health-care facilities and public vehicles. Future challenges of HVAC design and control were discussed.