Airbus and Boeing have been studying how the virus spreads in cabins. Part of the research has explored using UV light to kill coronavirus between flights, which is also being trialled in New York by the Metropolitan Transit Authority on subway cars.

New simulations using physics-based simulation technology Ansys show how UV light treatment can be deployed to deactivate the virus in aircraft cabins between flights.

UV light disinfection systems operate on the principle of “line of sight”. For a surface to be disinfected, it needs to be directly within sight of the light source. Any shadows caused by occluding objects can cause incomplete coverage of the environment.

One simulation uses a robot delivery system that could disinfect an airplane in a few minutes while it is stationary at the gate. It can cover all the surfaces efficiently, but a complication is that it must enter/exit for each cleaning. It also presents a challenge with regards to navigating around the environment.

The other option is to use UV lighting fixtures. Installed fixtures can be easily and quickly activated but require significant remodelling (potentially cost/time-prohibitive) and may not deliver the UV light efficiently to all surfaces in the environment.

Optical modelling demonstrates that it is possible to use different methods to deliver the necessary UV light dosage to all surfaces of the cabin potentially in contact with the passengers. However, the robot delivery system is the most likely to guarantee that the correct UV light dosage is delivered.

www.ansys.com