Effect of individually controlled personalized ventilation on cross-contamination due to respiratory activities

While personalized ventilation (PV) has been integrated to enhance inhaled air quality, some studies showed that it can contribute contaminants' transport indoors. This work investigates the effect of individual preferences PV users on potential cross-contamination in an office. Two occupants were using PV, sitting either face or back (i.e. tandem). One was infecting office space through two respiratory activities: coughing and breathing. The flowrate control ranged between 0 13 l/s, ensuring thermal comfort. A 3-D computational fluid dynamics model developed experimentally validated a climatic chamber equipped with one manikin representing infected person heated dummy healthy person. assessed intake fraction ( i F ) index, which is ratio contaminants’ mass by exhaled It found minimal exposure levels reached when used low (in range 0–4 l/s) for tandem seating high PV(in 9–13 face-to-face seating. Furthermore, average iF 31% lower than 86% breathing all possible cases. • Effect flow cross-contamination. Tandem facing contaminant sources (breathing, coughing) are studied. CFD assess via index. Low ensured at < 4 l/s > 9 positions. Average (coughing) (breathing).