Efficient Ventilation Configurations for an Isolation Ward in View of Reducing the Potential Contamination of Its Occupants

Abstract

The rise of respiratory infections, such as the SARS epidemic in 2003, and the H1N1 influenza epidemic in 2011, highlighted the importance of efficient ventilation in healthcare facilities. The novel SARS -Cov-2 disease has sparked many concerns over the ventilation performance of multi-bed isolation wards and their ability to suppress airborne infectious contamination. The study is primarily based on suggesting ventilation improvements for a locally acquired multi-bed intensive care isolation unit. The study via ANSYS -fluent incorporates a k-𝜀 turbulent model that is used to analyze exhaled CO2 particle tracks of 4 human models. Three ventilation strategies, namely, Displacement, Stratum, and Curtain -Air-jet are initially considered and evaluated based on two indoor air quality indices (IAQs), namely, air change efficiency and contaminant removal effectiveness. Stratum ventilation comfortably exhibits unidirectional flow characteristics with an air change efficiency of 0.946, which was obtained through ANSYS -CFX while each suggested configuration is capable of achieving a contaminant removal effectiveness value greater than 1 which depicts that the contamination source is not in a perfect mixing zone. Results provided inconclusive evidence to draw correlations between the two IAQ indices and thus it is confirmed that these indices solely depend on the type of ventilation strategy. Contaminant concentration on health care worker breathing plane and exhaled particle tracking for 4 minutes in each analyzed configuration revealed that both Stratum and Curtain air-jet models improve the escaped particle efficiency by 25% and 29% respectively compared to the base model. These models are further compared against reference values specified by guidelines to evaluate their suitability for real-world operation.