Design and Simulation of an Air Conditioning Project in a Hospital Based on Computational Fluid Dynamics

• Main Authors: Ding X. R., Guo Y. Y., Chen Y. Y.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Sciendo 2017-06-01
• Series: Archives of Civil Engineering
• Subjects: Computational fluid dynamics technology; clean operating room; numerical simulation; turbulence model; engineering design
• Online Access: http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/ace.2017.63.issue-2/ace-2017-0014/ace-2017-0014.xml?format=INT

This study aims to design a novel air cleaning facility which conforms to the current situation in China, and moreover can satisfy our demand on air purification under the condition of poor air quality, as well as discuss the development means of a prototype product. Air conditions in the operating room of a hospital were measured as the research subject of this study. First, a suitable turbulence model and boundary conditions were selected and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software was used to simulate indoor air distribution. The analysis and comparison of the simulation results suggested that increasing the area of air supply outlets and the number of return air inlets would not only increase the area of unidirectional flow region in main flow region, but also avoid an indoor vortex and turbulivity of the operating area. Based on the summary of heat and humidity management methods, the system operation mode and relevant parameter technologies as well as the characteristics of the thermal-humidity load of the operating room were analyzed and compiled. According to the load value and parameters of indoor design obtained after our calculations, the airflow distribution of purifying the air-conditioning system in a clean operating room was designed and checked. The research results suggested that the application of a secondary return air system in the summer could reduce energy consumption and be consistent with the concept of primaiy humidity control. This study analyzed the feasibility and energy conservation properties of cleaning air-conditioning technology in operating rooms, proposed some solutions to the problem, and performed a feasible simulation, which provides a reference for practical engineering.