Decoupled synergistic control of airborne infection risk and thermal comfort in open layout dental clinics: Integration of indoor airflow pattern, physical barrier, and air purifier

Open layout dental clinics represent a typical medical environment characterized by high bioaerosol exposure risk and stringent thermal comfort requirements. Optimization of conventional air-conditioning airflow patterns often fails to simultaneously control thermal comfort and infection risk. Moreover, existing studies have largely overlooked surface contact infection caused by bioaerosol deposition. This study proposes a decoupled synergistic optimization strategy for indoor thermal comfort and airborne infection risk, based on the integration of airflow pattern, physical barrier and air purifier. First, airflow pattern of HVAC system is optimized to ensure indoor thermal comfort. Subsequently, low-intervention pollution-control devices (physical barriers and air purifiers) are introduced to reduce indoor bioaerosol concentrations and suppress dispersion pathways without compromising thermal comfort. Based on Dose-response model, CFD-based bioaerosol…