Analysis of parametric optimization on the design of negative pressure room

ABSTRACT

Negative pressure rooms are crucial for the prevention of the dispersion of infectious diseases. Using the ANSYS-Fluent finite volume method (FVM), standard k$-$ϵ turbulent, species transport, and discrete phase model with the transient condition, this research aims to reduce the amount of airborne contamination inside the negative pressure room. In the current design, both 10 area ratios and static supply pressures $-$1 – $-$30 Pa are considered. The optimum condition is reached at an area ratio of 9 and 13 Air change per hours (ACHs) with a 96% reduction in CO₂ concentration and an exhaust velocity of 3 m/s and a minimum power consumption of 247 W at a supply pressure of ($-$10) Pa. The effective direct airflow pattern is observed as a safe environment by analyzing the streamlines and velocity vector distributions. To prevent the infectious viruses spread, the particle tracking of coughed droplets is analyzed so that 100% of aerosol particles can be extracted within 3 s. The door-opening effect showed that the desired negative pressure could be maintained even if the door opened for a long time. This work will benefit the design engineers for any intended negative pressure room and provide a secure working environment for the medical personnel.

KEYWORDS:

• Negative pressure room
• finite volume method (FVM)
• area ratios
• droplets particles tracking
• minimum power consumption

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang. We would like to acknowledge the Computer Simulation Engineering Laboratory, College of Advanced Manufacturing Innovation, KMITL for providing the computational facilities. The authors would like to thank Enago (www.enago.com) for the English language review. We would like to acknowledge the NSRF (grant number: RE-KRIS-FF65-25) for partial support in this work.

Disclosure statement

The authors declared that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.