About this Research Topic
Over the past three years, the global COVID-19 pandemic has exerted significant pressure on health systems and societies. Airborne transmission is considered a dominant mode of contagion, with most spreading events occurring in enclosed indoor spaces. In such environments, building ventilation systems plays a crucial role in the movement and recirculation of indoor air, which directly affects the airborne transmission of disease pathogens. In response to the pandemic, there has been a paradigm shift in the design and operation of building ventilation systems, aiming at mitigating the transmission of airborne diseases within indoor environments, thereby safeguarding the health and well-being of occupants.
Existing guidelines for controlling disease outbreaks rely on energy-intensive measures. For instance, measures include reducing indoor air recirculation and increasing the intake of outdoor fresh air. However, these approaches lead to a substantial increase in energy consumption, particularly during extreme weather conditions, as conditioning a significant amount of outdoor air becomes necessary. Such measures can conflict with prevailing energy-saving requirements driven by carbon neutrality objectives. Hence, it is imperative to explore innovative and adaptive design methods for building ventilation systems that effectively control indoor disease transmission while ensuring health and safety of occupants in a more energy-efficient manner. This calls for design solutions that consider both sustainable objectives aimed at decreasing energy consumption and resilient goals focused on mitigating disease transmission within indoor environments.
This research topic welcomes submissions of the following article types: Correction, Editorial, Hypothesis & Theory, Methods, Mini Review, Opinion, Original Research, Perspective and Review. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:
• Advanced design method for improving sustainability and resilience of building ventilation systems;
• Computational fluid dynamics modeling of building ventilation systems;
• Optimization of air distribution and airflow patterns;
• Natural ventilation and passive building design;
• High-efficiency air filtration / filter coatings technologies;
• Pathogen inactivation technologies such as ultra-violet germicidal irradiation, chemical disinfection, heat inactivation, non-thermal plasma, etc.
The outlined areas of research aim to develop and optimize building ventilation systems by leveraging cutting-edge technologies, computational modeling, and innovative design principles to create healthier indoor environments while also prioritizing energy efficiency and sustainability.
All manuscripts must be submitted directly to the section Indoor Environment, where they are peer-reviewed by the Associate and Review Editors of the specialty section.
Existing guidelines for controlling disease outbreaks rely on energy-intensive measures. For instance, measures include reducing indoor air recirculation and increasing the intake of outdoor fresh air. However, these approaches lead to a substantial increase in energy consumption, particularly during extreme weather conditions, as conditioning a significant amount of outdoor air becomes necessary. Such measures can conflict with prevailing energy-saving requirements driven by carbon neutrality objectives. Hence, it is imperative to explore innovative and adaptive design methods for building ventilation systems that effectively control indoor disease transmission while ensuring health and safety of occupants in a more energy-efficient manner. This calls for design solutions that consider both sustainable objectives aimed at decreasing energy consumption and resilient goals focused on mitigating disease transmission within indoor environments.
This research topic welcomes submissions of the following article types: Correction, Editorial, Hypothesis & Theory, Methods, Mini Review, Opinion, Original Research, Perspective and Review. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:
• Advanced design method for improving sustainability and resilience of building ventilation systems;
• Computational fluid dynamics modeling of building ventilation systems;
• Optimization of air distribution and airflow patterns;
• Natural ventilation and passive building design;
• High-efficiency air filtration / filter coatings technologies;
• Pathogen inactivation technologies such as ultra-violet germicidal irradiation, chemical disinfection, heat inactivation, non-thermal plasma, etc.
The outlined areas of research aim to develop and optimize building ventilation systems by leveraging cutting-edge technologies, computational modeling, and innovative design principles to create healthier indoor environments while also prioritizing energy efficiency and sustainability.
All manuscripts must be submitted directly to the section Indoor Environment, where they are peer-reviewed by the Associate and Review Editors of the specialty section.
Keywords: Building ventilation systems, Pandemic, Infection risk mitigation, Energy efficiency, Design
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
