Eventos Anais de eventos
COBEM 2021
26th International Congress of Mechanical Engineering
ANALYSIS OF INDOOR VENTILATION IN A PNEUMOLOGY WARD AT THE LAURO WANDERLEY UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL, BRAZIL
Submission Author:
William Henrique de Lima Fiuza , SP
Co-Authors:
Camilo Alves, Fabrycio Medeiros, LEDSON PEDRO E SANTOS , Gustavo Charles Peixoto de Oliveira, William Henrique de Lima Fiuza
Presenter: William Henrique de Lima Fiuza
doi://10.26678/ABCM.COBEM2021.COB2021-1725
Abstract
Population growth, climate change, and high pollution rates significantly worsened the health of human beings on our planet. As a result, healthcare systems are obliged to expanding their treatment capacity and technology. A topic under discussion since the Covid-19 pandemic eclosion, the rapid proliferation of viruses that cause severe respiratory diseases, now disturbs not only local health professionals but also scientists worldwide. Some illnesses affecting human beings evolve to incurable states. Others are amplified or acquired in hospital environments by patients and employees. The latter class is commonly known as hospital infections, whose origin is still unknown to medical scientists. This type of infection is one of the biggest problems faced by patients during hospitalization. One of the determining factors for the aggravation of diseases caused by hospital infections is indoor air quality, which directly boosts the proliferation of fungi, bacteria, and viruses. Air should be renewed and harnessed for thermal comfort in hospital environments, especially where people circulate constantly. In this context, developing systems that afford efficient control of acclimatization, temperature, and humidity to minimize unwanted conditions and contamination is of utter relevance. The purpose of this paper is to carry out CFD simulations by using ANSYS/Fluent© software to evaluate indoor air ventilation in a 3-room pneumology ward of the Lauro Wanderley University Hospital (João Pessoa city, Brazil). We solve a coupled velocity-pressure-energy problem under initial and boundary conditions consistent with daily operation of air conditioning devices in these environments and analyze the airflow characteristics. Our findings aim to provide better engineering control for indoor acclimatization, mitigation of airborne transmission of viruses or hazardous substances, and containment of areas highly exposed to infection risks, such as waiting and emergency rooms.
Keywords
Air Circulation, Healthcare Comfort, Viral Mitigation, Engineering Control, Computational Fluid Dynamics
