Decision support for choosing ventilation operation strategy in hospital isolation rooms: A multi-criterion assessment under uncertainty

Kim, Sean Hay; Augenbroe, Godfried

doi:10.1016/j.buildenv.2012.09.005

Cited by 26 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Guidelines for isolation rooms do not recommend any particular ventilation strategy, but require keeping the room at negative pressure differential [40]. Kim and Augenbroe [41] suggest satisfying this by adaptive VAV (Variable Air Volume) operation, normally maintaining a low negative pressure differential, but temporarily inducing a higher value prior to door operation, to reduce energy consumption. As demonstrated by Adams et al [42], containment failure during door operation and passage can be significantly reduced by applying pressure difference.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Large Eddy Simulation of Air Escape through a Hospital Isolation Room Single Hinged Doorway—Validation by Using Tracer Gases and Simulated Smoke Videos

et al. 2015

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The use of hospital isolation rooms has increased considerably in recent years due to the worldwide outbreaks of various emerging infectious diseases. However, the passage of staff through isolation room doors is suspected to be a cause of containment failure, especially in case of hinged doors. It is therefore important to minimize inadvertent contaminant airflow leakage across the doorway during such movements. To this end, it is essential to investigate the behavior of such airflows, especially the overall volume of air that can potentially leak across the doorway during door-opening and human passage. Experimental measurements using full-scale mock-ups are expensive and labour intensive. A useful alternative approach is the application of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modelling using a time-resolved Large Eddy Simulation (LES) method. In this study simulated air flow patterns are qualitatively compared with experimental ones, and the simulated total volume of air that escapes is compared with the experimentally measured volume. It is shown that the LES method is able to reproduce, at room scale, the complex transient airflows generated during door-opening/closing motions and the passage of a human figure through the doorway between two rooms. This was a basic test case that was performed in an isothermal environment without ventilation. However, the advantage of the CFD approach is that the addition of ventilation airflows and a temperature difference between the rooms is, in principle, a relatively simple task. A standard method to observe flow structures is dosing smoke into the flow. In this paper we introduce graphical methods to simulate smoke experiments by LES, making it very easy to compare the CFD simulation to the experiments. The results demonstrate that the transient CFD simulation is a promising tool to compare different isolation room scenarios without the need to construct full-scale experimental models. The CFD model is able to reproduce the complex airflows and estimate the volume of air escaping as a function of time. In this test, the calculated migrated air volume in the CFD model differed by 20% from the experimental tracer gas measurements. In the case containing only a hinged door operation, without passage, the difference was only 10%.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Large Eddy Simulation of Air Escape through a Hospital Isolation Room Single Hinged Doorway—Validation by Using Tracer Gases and Simulated Smoke Videos

et al. 2015

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“…One solution would be to increase the flow rate differential temporarily during door operation only. Kim and Augenbroe [43] suggested realizing this by adaptive VAV (variable air volume) method normally keeping a low flow rate differential but capable of increasing it to higher values prior and during door operation. This kind of method sounds promising but more detailed studies are required to define how feasible these kinds of applications are in a real hospital environment.…”

Section: The Effect Of Supply-exhaust Flow Rate Differentialmentioning

confidence: 99%

Airflow patterns through single hinged and sliding doors in hospital isolation rooms – Effect of ventilation, flow differential and passage

Kalliomäki

Saarinen

Tang

et al. 2016

Building and Environment

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a b s t r a c tNegative pressure isolation rooms are used to house patients with highly contagious diseases (e.g. with airborne diseases) and to contain emitted pathogens to reduce the risk for cross-infection in hospitals. Airflows induced by door opening motion and healthcare worker passage can, however, transport the potentially pathogen laden air across the doorway. In this study airflow patterns across the isolation room doorway induced by the operation of single hinged and sliding doors with simulated human passage were examined. Smoke visualizations demonstrated that the hinged door opening generated a greater flow across the doorway than the sliding door. Tracer gas measurements showed that the examined ventilation rates (6 and 12 air changes per hour) had only a small effect on the air volume exchange across the doorway with the hinged door. The results were more variable with the sliding door. Supply-exhaust flow rate differential reduced the door motion-induced air transfer significantly with both door types. The experiments showed that the passage induced substantial air volume transport through the doorway with both door types. However, overall, the sliding door performed better in all tested scenarios, because the door-opening motion itself generated relatively smaller air volume exchange across the doorway, and hence should be the preferred choice in the design of isolation rooms.

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“…[3]). In this regard, the current literature suggests that achievable energy savings can be obtained by: adopting new ventilation strategies and more efficient technologies [11]; by optimizing the configurations of air distribution hospital rooms [13]; by taking into account adaptive VAV (variable air ventilation) operation [14,16]; by adopting heat recovery units [17] ad energy recovery ventilators [18]. In order to improve the resilience of the existing hospitals, the importance of good practices in the maintenance and repair of existing energy services and the adoption of low cost measures, that do not interfere with the functioning of the hospital, are recommended.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…aircooled chillers with centrifugal compressors), ventilation (e.g. advanced ventilation strategies [13,14]) and power generation (e.g. CHP (combined heating and power) or CCHP [15]) systems.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamic energy performance analysis: Case study for energy efficiency retrofits of hospital buildings

Buonomano¹,

Calise²,

Ferruzzi³

et al. 2014

Energy

109

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Decision support for choosing ventilation operation strategy in hospital isolation rooms: A multi-criterion assessment under uncertainty

Cited by 26 publications

References 15 publications

Large Eddy Simulation of Air Escape through a Hospital Isolation Room Single Hinged Doorway—Validation by Using Tracer Gases and Simulated Smoke Videos

Large Eddy Simulation of Air Escape through a Hospital Isolation Room Single Hinged Doorway—Validation by Using Tracer Gases and Simulated Smoke Videos

Airflow patterns through single hinged and sliding doors in hospital isolation rooms – Effect of ventilation, flow differential and passage

Dynamic energy performance analysis: Case study for energy efficiency retrofits of hospital buildings

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