The Influence of Ward Ventilation on Hospital Cross Infection by Varying the Location of Supply and Exhaust Air Diffuser Using CFD

Abstract

The SARS virus began to appear and spread in North America and Southeast Asia in the early 2000's, infecting and harming many people. In the process of examining the causes for the virus, studies on the airborne pathogen SARS virus and the way it spread were carried out mainly in the medical field. In the field of architecture, studies were done on the diffusion of air pollutants in buildings using gases such as CO 2 , N 2 O, or SF 6 , but research on virus diffusion was limited. There were also explanations of only the diffusion process without accurate information and discussion on virus characteristics. The aim of this study is to analyze the physical characteristics of airborne virus, consider the possibility of using a coupled analysis model and tracer gas for analyzing virus diffusion in building space and, based on reports of how the infection spread in a hospital where SARS patients were discovered, analyze infection risk using tracer gas density and also diffusion patterns according to the location and volume of supply diffusers and exhaust grilles. This paper can provide standards and logical principles for evaluating various alternatives for making decisions on horizontal ward placement, air supply and exhaust installation and volumes in large hospitals.

The role of computational fluid dynamics tools on investigation of pathogen transmission: Prevention and control

“…Their investigation indicated that parallel flow can effectively control the virus transmission and staggering the position of air inlet and outlet is also an effective way. Lim et al (2010a) used the tracer gas and CFD coupled method to analyze the characteristics of the airborne virus in their article published in 2010. They indicated that the spread of the virus can be considered as the gas diffusion because the size of it is nano-scale, Brownian motion can be used to describe the virus transmission in air.…”

The impact of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning design features on the transmission of viruses, including the 2019 novel coronavirus: a systematic review of ventilation and coronavirus

“…Five modelling studies analyzed the effect of both ventilation rate and airflow patterns on SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 (n=1), SARS-CoV/SARS (n=3), and MERS-CoV (n=1). These modelling studies used settings representing hospital wards, [51][52][53][54] three of which were the Prince of Wales Hospital in Hong Kong, [51][52][53] and a supermarket. 55 Three studies analyzed the 2003 outbreak of SARS in ward 8A of the Prince of Wales Hospital, Hong Kong.…”

The Role of the Hospital Environment in Preventing Healthcare-Associated Infections Caused by Pathogens Transmitted through the Air

“…Patients with highly transmittable airborne pathogens should be placed in a negative pressure isolation room, which can prevent transmission of pathogens such Mycobacterium tuberculosis , varicella (chickenpox), and rubeola (measles) (Sehulster & Chinn, 2003; Lim, Cho, & Kim, 2010; Montecalvo et al, 1999; Ostrowsky et al, 2001; Stelfox, Bates, & Redelmeier, 2003; World Health Organization, 1999). These negative pressure isolation rooms are typically single-patient rooms.…”