Thermal Performance Improvement and Contamination Control Strategies in an Operating Room

Abstract

Operating room is a cleanroom that provides thermal comfort and good indoor air quality (IAQ) to support the surgery process. The heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system plays a critical role for the health protection regarding to IAQ, i.e., thermal performance, air changes per hour, pressurization, filtration, air distribution, etc. However, HVAC system in the operating room is operated for 24 hours year-round with intensive energy consumption. Energy-efficient approaches for the HVAC system is also quite challenging in term of contamination control to meet the standards specifications. In this study, a full-scale operating room was carried out through field measurements and numerical analysis extensively. Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) simulation has been carried out and verified with field measurement data. Thermal comfort performance along with temperature distribution and velocity profile have been simulated extensively. The energy-efficient approach by reducing the face velocity of the HEPA filter was examined which is done by reducing the velocity from 0.4, 0.3, 0.2 (m/s) for energy-saving concern but still need to meet the thermal performance and minimum contamination control requirement. The results reveal how the potential of HVAC systems to control air contamination, a comfortable thermal environment for occupants and the possibility of energy-efficient approaches in the operating room.