The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) announced Friday, June 4, that it has approved a project seeking to model embarkation-disembarkation behavior in commuter buses and trains to look into airflow and aerosolization in a bid to mitigate the transmission of coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
DOST Secretary Fortunato “Boy” T. de la Peña said the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (PCHRD), headed by Dr. Jaime C. Montoya approved the six month-long project, which is currently being conducted by the Ateneo de Manila University (AdMU).
"The project aims to plug a knowledge gap and help transport operators and engineers to identify significant risks and design ways to further reduce the risk of passengers of buses, the LRT (Light Rail Transit), and the MRT (Metro Rail Transit) getting infected with the COVID-19 virus,” he bared on the DOSTv Facebook page on Friday, June 4.
The project titled “Modeling Embarkation-Disembarkation Behavior and Configuration Settings in Philippine Commuter Buses, Light Rail Transit, and Metro Rail Transit using Theoretical and Computational Fluid Dynamics as Analytical Tools in the Mitigation of SARS-CoV-2 Airborne Transmission” is led by Dr. Joel T. Maquiling of AdMU.
De la Peña said the six month-long project has already started.
"The project duration is six months and project implementation commenced last May 1, 2021,” he said.
"Currently, the project team started initial runs (2D Ideal Flows) using Complex Analysis formalism to visualize the airflow transmission of viruses in public transportation,” he noted.