Ensuring the rail passenger health: integration of new air distribution concepts in a full-scale long-distance train laboratory (DIRK)

Abstract

We developed and pre-tested local ventilation and air-purification concepts to reduce the spreading of exhaled particles in the vicinity of the source, thus decreasing the infection risk via the direct path. Within a generic train compartment as well as in numerical simulations, the different operation procedures of the new concepts proofed their advantages and challenges with regard to the enhanced particle removal and the thermal comfort parameters. At the conference, we will present and discuss the latest experimental results on the capability of integration and the performance of two new concepts in a full-scale long-distance train laboratory, the so-called DIRK, a car of a former German Intercity Express train. The concepts, one being attached to the head-rests and the other one being integrated in the overhead storage racks, were integrated in this unique research facility, operated by the Deutsche Bahn Systemtechnik and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in cooperation, and studied using thermal passenger manikins, an aerosol-exhalation system and a distributed sensor network to acquire time-resolved the local particle concentrations.