Whereas many smoking rooms in U.S. airports have closed lately, they’re nonetheless frequent in different airports around the globe. These lounges will be ventilated, however how a lot does it really assist the dispersion of smoke?
Analysis revealed in Physics of Fluids, by AIP Publishing, reveals that not all standing positions in airport smoking lounges are created equal.
Researchers from the College of Hormozgan in Iran studied nicotine particles in a simulated airport smoking room and located that the thermal surroundings and positioning of people who smoke influenced how particles settle within the room.
Moreover, people who smoke seated farther from air flow inlets skilled the bottom ranges of air pollution within the room.
“We anticipated that people who find themselves standing within the corners would report the identical quantity of particles deciding on their physique,” writer Younes Bakhshan mentioned. “However based on the numbers that we decided, the wave created by the air flow within the room will not be the identical each time.”
The researchers created a smoking room utilizing computational fashions and positioned heated and unheated manikins within the room to simulate people who smoke. Additionally they modeled the air flow system with three exhaust air diffusers.
The manikin people who smoke “exhaled” cigarette smoke by way of their mouths and noses, and the move of the particles was modeled and noticed. They discovered that over time, because the focus of particles decreases within the air, the particles deciding on the people who smoke will increase.
“Based on the outcomes, physique warmth causes extra absorption of cigarette air pollution,” Bakhshan mentioned. “We advise that if folks must smoke within the room, empty locations are the perfect to decide on.”
The outcomes gave perception into bettering air flow in smoking lounges.
“Based on earlier analysis, displacement air flow system is the perfect for a smoking room,” Bakhshan mentioned. “But when we wish to optimize the HVAC system, we recommend that the exhaust ought to be put in on the wall along with the vents positioned on the ceiling.”
Subsequent, the researchers wish to take a step past measuring particle dispersion to particle discount.
“We consider that people who smoke who go into the smoking room for the sake of others’ well being ought to be additionally shielded from the dangerous results of secondhand smoke,” Bakhshan mentioned.