In the February–March 2023 edition of HVAC&R News Louise Belfield reports on this project initiated by the City of Melbourne in collaboration with Cbus Property, the University of Melbourne, A.G. Coombs, SEED engineering, Aurecon, Cundall, and Westaflex Australia.

“BREATH is a world-first collaboration between local government, industry and academics, and has given us the knowledge to predict the best type of retrofit to simultaneously reduce carbon footprint and infectious disease transmission,” says Jason Monty, Professor of Fluid Mechanics and Head of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Melbourne

“We worked closely with clients, industry and government during the pandemic to highlight the role that ventilation in buildings can play in mitigating the transmission of aerosol-borne diseases,” says Andrew Nagarajah, Senior Engineer, Sustainability at A.G. Coombs Advisory.

“Our participation in the BREATH project is a natural extension of that. Post COVID it is essential that building owners, occupiers and HVAC designers and service providers have an enhanced understanding of air distribution in the built environment and how this can be better configured to significantly reduce aerosol spread of disease.”

Read the full article here.

For more information about the BREATH project and findings, visit the City of Melbourne website.

A.G Coombs COVID-19 Building Services Resources.