Why you should open your car windows to stay safe from COVID-19 infection

Channel: The Conversation

mix it inside the cabin and then flush it out.

So some of the ways in which this can be done are by

either having the heating system which takes in fresh air from outside

and then have a window through which it can be flushed out.

Another way is to have windows open.

So the benefit of having windows open is that if you are riding at

20 miles an hour or faster, then you can flush out a lot of air just by the speed of the car.

So as compared to just having the heating or air conditioning on

this mode of having windows open allows to flush more air out

the best configuration we think is to have all windows open, and if possible, fully open.

If this is not practical, then it would be good to have two windows open

and preferably have one of the windows to be . on the rear, and one of the windows to be on the front.

What we found out from computer simulations is that

the air enters through the rear window,. turns around behind the rear passenger and exits through the front window.

In this process, you are able to flush out

many of these aerosol particles inside the cabin.

So if you want to have barriers as is the case with many taxis and Uber and Lyft rides,

you can inhibit, you can reduce the transmission through larger droplets.

By larger droplets I mean submillimeter sized droplets but still larger than five microns or so.

And these are the kinds of droplets that you release when you cough, or sneeze or talk loudly.

So having barriers does help against that.

Decontaminating surfaces helps against the fomite transmission.

And the third mode of transmission which is . airborne would not be limited too much by these barriers,

because there's always gaps and holes in barriers

and you can still get air passing through them.

So that's why we think about this.