In addition to surface contamination, COVID-19 can be spread through respiratory droplets or airborne transmission. As a result, as users of CFD tools, many of us have considered or been asked what simulations we can do to fight the pandemic and protect people against infection. One of the benefits of CFD is that it makes visible what we would otherwise not see, but it is vital to know how well the simulations capture what is important. Validation is challenging, boundary conditions may not be clear, what about the transient effects of breathing and the motion of people, the treatment of turbulence, simplifying assumptions?

This NAFEMS CFD Community event addresses some of the challenges and issues that must be considered before engaging in such simulations and provided an opportunity for the community to discuss how CFD may be usefully used for these scenarios.