Retrofitting an Indoor-Public Space Façade to Reduce Airborne Bio-Contaminants Diseases Infection Using Hybrid Approach

Throughout the pandemic of COVID-19, many indoor-public spaces faced the challenge of fulfilling the precautions advised by the World Health Organization (WHO). Particularly keeping the indoor-public space well-ventilated, as some indoor spaces may lake for enough openings, or it depends completely on mechanical ventilation systems. This paper proposes a novel retrofitting hybrid method that targets retrofitting scenarios that are related to reducing airborne bio-contaminant diseases through natural ventilation. The proposed method (Epidemic Hybrid Retrofitting-EHR) aims to address hybrid objectives; reducing the infection rate of airborne bio-contaminant diseases and enhancing Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) as quantitative objectives. While addressing user satisfaction as a qualitative objective. The application of the EHR method has gone through three phases that include ten steps. Among those phases another novel method was conducted; Computational Fluid Dynamics Parametric Optimization (CFDPO) method. The CFDPO aims to accelerate the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD simulation process by merging the parametric optimization process and CFD accurate simulation process. The applicability of the proposed EHR and CFDPO methods was tested on a public shared office located in Cairo, Egypt. The application was executed through applying hybrid methods, observation, investigation, questionnaire (on two stages, investigation and evaluation), CFDPO, CFD analysis, linear regression analysis, mathematical calculations, and hybrid evaluation process. The EHR and CFDPO methods proved applicability as they could be used in future practices to reduce airborne bio-contaminant diseases through natural ventilation by engaging space users in making the retrofitting decision. Moreover, they can address further objectives by applying slight adjustments.