Engineering Commons^™

Bioaerosol Deposition On An Air-Conditioning Cooling Coil, Yan Wu, Ailu Chen, Irvan Luhung, Elliott T. Gall, Qingliang Cao, Victor Wei-Chung Chang, William W. Nazaroff

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study is concerned with the role of a fin-and-tube heat exchanger in modifying microbial indoor air quality. Specifically, depositional losses of ambient bioaerosols and particles onto dry (not cooled) and wet (cool) coil surfaces were measured for different airspeeds passing through the test coil. Total, bacterial and fungal DNA concentrations in condensate water produced by a wet coil were also quantified by means of fluorescent dsDNA-binding dye and qPCR assays. Results revealed that the deposition of bioaerosols and total particles is substantial on coil surfaces, especially when wet and cool. The average deposition fraction was 0.14 for total DNA, …