Impact of impinging jet ventilation on thermal comfort and aerosol transmission: A numerical investigation in a densely-occupied classroom with solar effect

Urgent demands for ensuring safe and healthy spaces for children have been raised due to the post-COVID-19 pandemic. This study numerically modelled a densely populated classroom with 40 students and one teacher across two layouts with different relative vent positions to assess the effectiveness of an emerging ventilation scheme, impinging jet ventilation (IJV), in balancing thermal comfort and controlling indoor transmission. The effect of solar radiation was carefully analysed. Cough-induced contaminants were expelled from the infectious teacher and were traced by the Eulerian-Lagrangian approach. The exposure risk of students was further assessed via the inhalation index (ID) based on the spatial characteristics of the released particles. The thermal comfort was evaluated by the Fanger model. The results demonstrated that IJV with Layout 2 (teacher at the supply inlet and exhaust side) was found more optimal in counterbalancing the occupants’ thermal comfort and indoor transmission control. This layout not only aligned better with ASHRAE standards for thermal comfort, showing a reduced vertical thermal gradient but also lowered student exposure risk by 18.9%–135.2%. With solar radiation, heat absorbed by the windows led to non-uniform wall temperature distributions, causing the air near the windows to also exhibit a non-uniform profile. This interaction with the cooler air from the IJV system was found to facilitate contaminant dispersion. This resulted in a 10.3% to 26% increase in students’ average exposure risk compared to those without solar radiation cases. This study aimed to investigate the practical applications of IJV system for densely-occupied classrooms.