Numerical assessment of ceiling-mounted air curtain on the particle distribution in surgical zone

Abstract

The airflow distribution in an operating room plays a vital role in preventing surgical site infection by diluting and removing particles released by medical staff, lowering particle settlement on a patient. This study aims to computationally examine the efficiency of a ceiling-mounted air curtain in reducing particle distribution in a surgical zone. A computational fluid dynamic (CFD) software simulated an operating room’s airflow and particle movements using the corresponding Re-Normalisation Group (RNG) k-ε model and a Lagrangian model. The baseline case and case 1 simulations were equipped with air supply diffusers, while cases 2 to 5 utilised combined air supply diffusers and air curtains. The results revealed that an air curtain fails to reduce particle settlement on a patient. In fact, the use of air curtain in cases 2, 3, 4, and 5 led to an unwanted 3.3-, 4.3-, 3.0-, and 6.7-fold increased particle settlement, respectively. On a positive note, the study found that increasing the area of the air supply diffuser from 4.32 to 7.74 m2 favourably reduced the number of particles by 33.3%.