Application of an Infection Risk Model to Train and Aircraft Travel: a Comparison

Kurzfassung

A travel journey in public transport together with many other passengers bears the risk of infection by airborne contaminant transmission as soon as one sick person is within the group of travelers. An improved understanding of the particle transport processes from the emitter to the recipient combined with an infection risk evaluation forms the basis for defining meaningful countermeasures. An infection risk model was recently developed and presented by Webner et al. (2024, 2025). This model is based on a forward risk estimation using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) for the detailed particle spreading within the cabin or compartment. Hence, it incorporates the possibility to compare the effect of different ventilation strategies as well as the effect of other input parameter, such as virus stability in air, increased virus inactivation or virus emission rate. At the conference, we will present the application of the infection risk model to long-distance passenger trains as well as to a single aisle aircraft cabin. Thereby, also different ventilation concepts, as installed in such kind of trains, are also studied. The results are compared in terms of mean infection risk for single passengers, the expected number of secondary infections during a travel journey as well as large-scale patterns of high or low risk areas. Furthermore, the results are interpreted using the underlying CFD simulation results, e.g., by analyzing the particle trajectories in the specific areas leading to the observed infection risk. Disclaimer: Partially funded by the European Union. Views and opinion expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. The project FP4-Rail4EARTH is supported by the Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking and its members.