Investigation of Airflow Distribution and Contamination Control with Different Schemes in an Operating Room
Controlling contamination via proper airflow distribution in an operating room becomes vital to ensure the reliable surgery process. The heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems significantly influence the operating room environment, including temperature, relative humidity, pressur...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2021-12-01
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| Series: | Atmosphere |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/12/12/1639 |
| _version_ | 1797506632281751552 |
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| author | Fujen Wang Indra Permana Dibakar Rakshit Bowo Yuli Prasetyo |
| author_facet | Fujen Wang Indra Permana Dibakar Rakshit Bowo Yuli Prasetyo |
| author_sort | Fujen Wang |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Controlling contamination via proper airflow distribution in an operating room becomes vital to ensure the reliable surgery process. The heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems significantly influence the operating room environment, including temperature, relative humidity, pressurization, particle counts, filtration, and ventilation rate. A full-scale operating room has been investigated extensively through field measurements and numerical analyses. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation was conducted and verified with the field measurement data. The simulation was analyzed with three different operating room schemes, including at-rest conditions (case 1), normal operational conditions with personnel (case 2), and actual conditions with personnel inside and some medical equipment blocking the return air (case 3). The concentration decay method was used to evaluate this study. The results revealed that the contamination concentration in case 1 could be diluted quickly with the average value of 404 ppm, whereas the concentration in case 2 slightly increased while performing a surgery with the average value of 420 ppm. The return air grilles in case 3, blocked by obstacles from some medical equipment, resulted in the average concentration value of 474 ppm. Other than that, the contaminant dilution could be obstructed dramatically, which revealed that proper and smooth airflow distribution is essential for contamination control. The ventilation efficiency of case 2 and case 3 dropped around 6% and 17.91% compared to case 1 in the unoccupied and ideal condition. Ventilation efficiency also decreased along with decreasing the air change rate per hour (ACH), while with increasing ACH, the ventilation efficiency in case 3 actually increased, approaching case 2 in the ideal condition. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T04:35:18Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-01e70c507b8445cd8f8d40f54f960e50 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2073-4433 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T04:35:18Z |
| publishDate | 2021-12-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Atmosphere |
| spelling | doaj.art-01e70c507b8445cd8f8d40f54f960e502023-11-23T03:46:40ZengMDPI AGAtmosphere2073-44332021-12-011212163910.3390/atmos12121639Investigation of Airflow Distribution and Contamination Control with Different Schemes in an Operating RoomFujen Wang0Indra Permana1Dibakar Rakshit2Bowo Yuli Prasetyo3Department of Refrigeration, Air Conditioning and Energy Engineering, National Chin-Yi University of Technology, Taichung 411, TaiwanGraduate Institute of Precision Manufacturing, National Chin-Yi University of Technology, Taichung 411, TaiwanDepartment of Energy Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi 110016, IndiaDepartment of Refrigeration and Air Conditioning, Politeknik Negeri Bandung, Bandung 40559, IndonesiaControlling contamination via proper airflow distribution in an operating room becomes vital to ensure the reliable surgery process. The heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems significantly influence the operating room environment, including temperature, relative humidity, pressurization, particle counts, filtration, and ventilation rate. A full-scale operating room has been investigated extensively through field measurements and numerical analyses. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation was conducted and verified with the field measurement data. The simulation was analyzed with three different operating room schemes, including at-rest conditions (case 1), normal operational conditions with personnel (case 2), and actual conditions with personnel inside and some medical equipment blocking the return air (case 3). The concentration decay method was used to evaluate this study. The results revealed that the contamination concentration in case 1 could be diluted quickly with the average value of 404 ppm, whereas the concentration in case 2 slightly increased while performing a surgery with the average value of 420 ppm. The return air grilles in case 3, blocked by obstacles from some medical equipment, resulted in the average concentration value of 474 ppm. Other than that, the contaminant dilution could be obstructed dramatically, which revealed that proper and smooth airflow distribution is essential for contamination control. The ventilation efficiency of case 2 and case 3 dropped around 6% and 17.91% compared to case 1 in the unoccupied and ideal condition. Ventilation efficiency also decreased along with decreasing the air change rate per hour (ACH), while with increasing ACH, the ventilation efficiency in case 3 actually increased, approaching case 2 in the ideal condition.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/12/12/1639operating roomairflow distributioncontamination controlfield measurementcomputational fluid dynamics |
| spellingShingle | Fujen Wang Indra Permana Dibakar Rakshit Bowo Yuli Prasetyo Investigation of Airflow Distribution and Contamination Control with Different Schemes in an Operating Room Atmosphere operating room airflow distribution contamination control field measurement computational fluid dynamics |
| title | Investigation of Airflow Distribution and Contamination Control with Different Schemes in an Operating Room |
| title_full | Investigation of Airflow Distribution and Contamination Control with Different Schemes in an Operating Room |
| title_fullStr | Investigation of Airflow Distribution and Contamination Control with Different Schemes in an Operating Room |
| title_full_unstemmed | Investigation of Airflow Distribution and Contamination Control with Different Schemes in an Operating Room |
| title_short | Investigation of Airflow Distribution and Contamination Control with Different Schemes in an Operating Room |
| title_sort | investigation of airflow distribution and contamination control with different schemes in an operating room |
| topic | operating room airflow distribution contamination control field measurement computational fluid dynamics |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/12/12/1639 |
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