Three-dimensional air distribution analysis of different outflow typed operating rooms at different inlet velocities and room temperatures

Abstract

It is important to provide a regular unidirectional air distribution in an operating room to reduce the number of particles. Measurements were taken in the one of the operating rooms at Uludag University Medical School, with laminar air flow unit and two-cornered outlet which was thought to have some airflow problems. Moreover, a three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics model has been developed where the measurements were taken in. The distributions of air velocity, temperature, and relative humidity have been examined and compared with the measurements to validate the computational fluid dynamics analyses. In addition to present model, four-cornered outlet operating room has been analyzed and compared with the results of two-cornered one. It is concluded that the case of four-cornered outlet provides more suitable thermal distribution, which results in a reduction of the particle numbers in the interior. Although there is no significant change in temperature and relative humidity in the operating room, air distribution changes dramatically.