Computational study on the potential transmission of COVID-19 virus on an Indonesian fishing vessel

During fishing operations, fishers often need to work in close proximity to each other on deck in a very limited space. This open-air working area can be subjected to various airflow conditions which might foster the airborne transmission of COVID-19 virus. To understand the risk of contagion in such a working environment and develop effective mitigation strategies to ensure the fishermen’s safety, the present work establishes a computational model to analyse the virus’ airborne transmission. Specifically, the work applies Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) to simulate various airflows occurring on an Indonesian fishing vessel, which is combined with Lagrangian particles that are used to model and track COVID-19 viruses. The concentration and coverage of COVID-19 viruses are analysed, considering the infected person working in different deck locations and under the influence of different vessel/wind speeds and directions. Subsequently, a set of guidelines including safe distance for the fishermen is suggested for each scenario