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The use of sit-stand desks (SSD) has shown positive results in reducing sitting time for office workers. Different factors can help with the use of the table, such as participatory ergonomics and an SSD reminder system. However, little is known about the influence of social factors at work, such as the influence of peers or supervisors using the device. The aim of this study was to investigate the use of SSDs and how the location and proximity of office workers affects SSD utilization over the course of two months. One-hundred eighty workers with SSDs participated in this study, and their desk locations and utilization were documented. It was observed that office workers spent on average (standard deviation) 7.1% (20.8%) of their time standing at their desks each day. Among these users, 12 participants were categorized as high SSD users, which spent more than two hours a day standing on average. It was found that during the study period, participants located next to high SSD utilizers did not change the SSD usage by increasing or decreasing their time spent standing. The results from the study suggest that the relative locations and proximity of workers do not significantly influence users to increase SSD use, and high users do not impact the SSD use of other users. These results showed that SSD use by peers or supervisors is not a strong social factor in improving the worker’s behavior of using the table and that other combined strategies are necessary. 

Flow around the Ahmed body is a well-recognized benchmark test case used by the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) community for model validation of automobiles. Even though the geometry of the Ahmed body is simple, the flow field around the object is complex due to flow separation and vortex shedding. In this paper, a Discrete Phase Model (DPM) based computational methodology is presented to estimate the effect of rain on aerodynamic performance and is validated with the experimental data that is available in the literature for the NACA64-210 wing section under different rain intensities. With this validated model, we have investigated the Ahmed body under low and high rain intensities for base slant angles of 25 and 35 degrees. The computed drag coefficient for the Ahmed body under rain conditions, are compared with the experimental data from aerodynamic analysis of the Ahmed body without rain, to evaluate the rain effect.