Numerical simulation on air distribution and aerosol transportation in operating room with unidirectional flow system under operational condition

Abstract

Surgical Site Infections (SSIs) is one of the common postoperative complications in hospitals. SSIs risk is positively correlated to the air contamination level in operating room. In order to explore the influence of different moving paths and different moving speeds of personnel on the ventilation efficiency under different air supply velocities in operating room, computational fluid dynamics simulation was performed with the dynamic mesh model. The air cleanliness level inside the surgical critical area was the best when the unidirectional air supply velocity was 0.35 m/s and when medical staff was standing still in the operating area. When medical staff was located in the peripheral area, particles generated from medical staff can be efficiently removed by the unidirectional airflow without transported into the surgical critical area. With the air supply velocity 0.35 m/s and the occupant's walking speed 1.0 m/s, the ventilation efficiency reached 53.8 %. It is found that the impact on the indoor airflow is the most significant when medical staff walks from the peripheral area to the surgical area. The numerical simulation method could be applied as an effective way to predict the performance of the air distribution in operating room under operational condition and to reduce the pollutant concentration in the critical surgical region.