Paper Conference

Proceedings of BSO Conference 2016: Third Conference of IBPSA-England

     

Performance Of Personal Ventilation Systems In A Multi-Bed Maternity Ward

Thomas A Corbett, Malcolm J Cook, Dennis L Loveday

Abstract: Personal ventilation (PV) is a method of supplying a small zone of an occupied space, with cool fresh supply air. Many studies have concentrated on, and shown positive benefits of, personal ventilation in office environments. However little has been done for hospitals. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was used to evaluate four different mechanical personal ventilation configurations in a maternity ward: canopy, pillow, headboard and footboard systems, with a fully naturally ventilated system as a base case. The results suggest a horizontal sinking flow will deliver supply air into the patient breathing zone (BZ). The head- and foot- board systems were able to accommodate changes in patient orientation, with negligible change in ventilation performance in terms of age of air, as well as providing comfortable uniform conditions. However, in order to achieve this, a compromise on air quality, albeit a small amount, is required. Overall evaluation suggests that the headboard-based PV system might offer the best all-round performance. 1
Pages: 186 - 194
Paper:
bso2016_1033