Office Mold Potential: Preparing for Safe Re-Entry after COVID-19 Desertion | Chapter 5 | Science and Technology - Recent Updates and Future Prospects Vol. 7

     

Background: While workers and organisations heeded lockdown enforcements and abandoned offices in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the potential for mold growth thrived in unoccupied offices. The growth of mold on buildings has raised concerns and led to increased legal action against property owners, builders, and real estate operators. There is a need to ensure a healthy office environment through health and environmental risk assessment strategies involving the identification and ridding of infective mold which might potentially impact the health of workers. An investigative enquiry to assess the potential and risk of  mold exposure is a sine-qua-non to safe re-entry to offices.

 

Materials and Methods: Visual inspection of offices through a walk-through survey was undertaken. An analytical study was conducted through a walk-through survey involving visual inspection, measurement of physico-chemical parameters (Temperature, Relative Humidity, Air Velocity and Particulate Matters PM2.5); and collection and analysis of suspected swabs and bulk samples. Four wall scrapings (bulk) and four swab samples were collected and cultured in the laboratory using nutrient agar.

 

Results: Results showed copious amounts of moisture evidenced by an averagely high relative humidity of 94%, low ambient temperature of 16% and poor ventilation evinced by an air velocity of 0.4 metres per second. Analysis of scrapings and surface swabs revealed the presence of three genus and eight species of fungi in the investigated sites. Analysis of samples of Mucor species revealed (Mucor mucedo, Mucor himalis, Mucor racemosus); Aspergillus species (Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus fumigatus and Aspergillus terrus); Cladosporium species (Cladosporium cladosproides and Cladosporium sphaerosperum).

 

Conclusion: Poor ventilation, deposits of debris, increased moisture and dysfunctional ventilation system as found in abandoned offices for Mold growth. Post-lockdown re-entry to offices should be preceded by Mold risk assessment among other measures to rule out the presence of Mold growth. Preparations for re-entry should include deep cleaning with anti-Mold agents, optimization of the ventilation system using anti-Mold and High-Efficiency Particulate Absorbing (HEPA) filters, and dehumidifiers and safe remediation of suspected mold growth using suitable personal protective equipment.

 

 

Author(s) Details

Kennedy A. Osakwe

School of Property, Construction and Project Management, RMIT University, 124 La Trobe St., Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia.

Folusho E. Alamina

Independent Researcher and Consultant Public and Occupational Health, Port Harcourt, Nigeria.

 

Please see the link:- https://doi.org/10.9734/bpi/strufp/v7/533

Thermal Deformation and Strength of Materials for Heat-shielding Coatings of a Spacecraft on the Trajectory of Descent from Orbit| Chapter 8 | Techniques and Innovation in Engineering Research Vol. 2

 The basis for a fundamental understanding of the process of material interaction with a medium is the agreement between experimental research and the actual operating conditions of a specific model or structure. Thermal Shield Materials (TSMs) are designed based on certain requirements, such as the characteristics of heating and material destruction under the least amount of shield weight. The more useful space load it can give, the lighter it must be. Since the thermal shield serves as a missile's ballast weight, it is only natural to want to lower the weight of TSMs without sacrificing their capacity to reliably perform their thermal shield role. Utilizing calculations based on the physical characteristics of materials discovered during conditions replicating a spacecraft's re-entry into the atmosphere, the performance of thermal shield structures was examined. The dependence of the temperature T of a thermal shield side surface on the period of descent in dense air layers serves as the basis for physical modelling of the natural conditions of thermal shield use (temperature, heating/cooling rate, composition, and pressure of gas medium). A thermal barrier was made composed of a laminated fibreglass shell with a phenol-phormaldehyde matrix. Investigations were done on temperature-dependent mechanical and thermophysical characteristics. By using numerical analysis, elasticity theory, and thermal conductivity equations to solve a 3D problem, it is possible to characterise the thermally stressed state of a cylindrical shield that is being impacted by a high-temperature gas flow. According to the results, the maximum compression stresses in a fibreglass thermal shield shell are located close to the heated surface and are not higher than the material's strength limit at that temperature. A new, 30% lighter thermal protection system for the re-entry vehicle was proposed and put into practise as a result of the experimental and theoretical investigations that were conducted.

Author(s) Details:

Lyudmila I. Gracheva,
G. S. Pisarenko Institute for Problems of Strength, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kiev - 01014, Ukraine.

Please see the link here: https://stm.bookpi.org/TAIER-V2/article/view/8276