Numerical Simulation of Air Flow in Multiple Beds Intensive Care Unit of Hospital

Abstract

Indoor air quality ventilation diminishes airborne respiratory and other transmission in hospitals. Airflow in associate medical care Unit (ICU) may be provided through natural mean and additionally by the assistance of mechanical ventilation. Natural ventilation might not be enough to satisfy the requirement of ventilation for associate degree ICU. In the present study, numerical simulation of the airflow pattern and contaminant movement using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) has been carried out for multiple bed hospital ICU with different inlet angles to examine path of contaminant transfer in the hospital. The measurement of air velocity is used as an input and standard k-ɛ turbulence model used in simulation work. Grid Independence Test (GIT) of hospital ICU has been carried out using high-quality tetrahedral unstructured mesh. In order to predict CFD simulations accurately, flow pattern has been validated using model of ICU with four bed and patient occupied with light source. Results shows that increasing rate of air flow change decreases the mean age of air. Importance of outlet position is high for transfer of contaminant particle from ICU.