Passengers who release hazardous materials or pathogens inside airline cabins could be easily identified by a combination of advanced sensors and airflow-tracking technology, said researchers at Purdue University.
The technique, called “inverse simulation,” analyzes how a material disperses throughout the cabin, and then runs the dispersion in reverse to find its origin. Sensors track the airflow pattern and collect data related to factors such as temperature, velocity and concentration of gases and particles in the air.
With this technology, authorities could track a substance to an area the size of a single seat, said Qingyan Chen, a professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University, in West Lafayette, Ind.
Officials could identify passengers responsible for the unintentional release of germs, such as contagious viruses, or the intentional release of pathogens or chemical agents in a terrorist attack, Chen said.
“The goal is to be able to track the source if a person released a biological agent, such as anthrax, or inadvertently released a pathogen such as pandemic flu by sneezing,” he said.
The recent case of an Atlanta lawyer who was infected with a deadly tuberculosis strain and boarded two transatlantic flights shows how even a single individual can trigger a global health alert. Infectious pathogens inside an aircraft are especially dangerous during lengthy international flights, said Chen.
Chen and mechanical engineering doctoral student Tengfei Zhang published their research on this technology in the International Journal of Indoor Environment and Health.
“Inverse simulation” is difficult to do, in part because an airline cabin is a large area, Chen said. “The procedure now requires several days of computing time to complete the track, meaning the method could be used only after a contamination occurs.”
Chen has recreated a commercial airliner’s passenger compartment, complete with rows of seating, at Purdue’s Ray W. Herrick Laboratories. The lab is equipped with three sensors and simulates the exhalation and body heat of passengers and an airliner’s “linear diffuser” environmental control system, which supplies fresh and re-circulated air for passengers. Boxy devices located on several seats reproduce body heat, and each has a tube that expels a gas to simulate passengers exhaling. Generating body heat is important because it affects airflow inside airliners, Chen said.
Future work will concentrate on speeding the computation time, so pilots can be alerted in real time and pinpoint a contaminant’s source.
The method is most accurate when three sensors are used to track a material, according to Chen. Using three sensors, the Purdue researchers showed that they could track a substance to within about two feet of its origin in an airline cabin.
The same principle could be applied to systems designed for other environments, such as office buildings, he said.
The research has been funded primarily by the Federal Aviation Administration. But the technology remains a long way from being certified by the FAA for use aboard airplanes.
“It may take several years to get it completely certified,” Chen said.
The Purdue team also may seek research contracts from the Defense Threats Reduction Agency, which has a call for proposals for technologies that can reduce chemical and biological threats in outdoor environments.
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