Case Study: St. Mary’s Cathedral achieves safer indoor air for COVID-19 mass with Hexagon’s CFD simulation solution

Fight COVID-19 with a good indoor environment through Smart CFD simulations

St. Mary's Cathedral in Tokyo faced the challenge of safely holding mass for up to 800 people during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Archbishop needed to understand how airborne virus droplets moved within the complex, hard-to-model 1964 concrete building. They partnered with Hexagon to utilize its Leica 3D laser scanners and Cradle CFD software for analysis.

Hexagon's solution involved creating a detailed 3D digital model of the cathedral from laser scan data and running Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations. The analysis revealed how droplets circulated and proved that simply opening the building's main doors would replace the indoor air within 10 minutes, creating a safer environment. This allowed the cathedral to implement effective, low-cost ventilation measures and safely hold its Christmas mass.