Abstract
Negative-pressurized isolation rooms have been approved effectively and applied widely for infectious patients. However, the outbreak of COVID-19 has led to a huge demand for negative-pressurized isolation rooms. It is critical and essential to ensure infection control performance through best practice of ventilation systems and optimum airflow distribution within isolation rooms. This study investigates a retrofitting project of an isolation room to accommodate COVID-19 patients. The field measurement has been conducted to ensure the compliance with the design specification from the CDC of Taiwan. The pressure differentials between negative-pressurized isolation rooms and corridor areas should be at least 8 Pa, while the air change rate per hour (ACH) should be 8–12 times. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is applied to evaluate the ventilation performance and contamination control. Different layout arrangements of exhaust air have been proposed to enhance the ventilation performance for infection control. A simple projected air-jet curtain has been proposed in the simulation model to enhance extra protection of medical staff. The resulting ventilation control revealed that the contamination control can be improved through the minor adjustment of exhaust air arrangement and the application of an air-jet curtain.
Highlights
The outbreak of COVID-19, caused by the novel SARS-CoV-2, spread rapidly worldwide in early 2020
The airborne transmission risk of COVID-19 was confirmed by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which advises that the droplets could spread through inhalation or ingestion by susceptible persons [3]
The transient simulation of a negative-pressurized isolation room has been carried out to evaluate the best layouts for ventilation system arrangement and contamination control
Summary
The outbreak of COVID-19, caused by the novel SARS-CoV-2, spread rapidly worldwide in early 2020. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation is employed to investigate the airflow pattern, pressurization, and control contamination in isolation rooms It helps to find a better design layout for supply and exhaust air, in order to improve the performance of ventilation and achieve contamination control. An experimental and simulation study has been conducted by Cho [13] on the placement of two wall-mounted exhaust air grilles beside the patient’s head The result shows it could provide a ready flow path for the airborne contaminant to directly exit the isolation room. Another CFD simulation study on the airflow patterns and thermal comfort based on different locations of supply diffusers and exhaust air grilles has been conducted by Khankari [14].
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