A Simplified Numerical Model for Simulating Sliding Door and Surgical Staff Movement in an Operating Theater

C. Balocco[1]
[1]Dipartimento di Energetica, Università di Firenze, Firenze, Italy
Published in 2012

This paper deals with a numerical investigation on sliding door and people moving effects on the indoor climate of a standard ISO5 class OT with an ultraclean air filter system and a total ceiling unidirectional diffuser. A simple method to analyze the effects on the OT climate by different sliding door conditions combined with crossing persons and persons with a stretcher crossing is provided. Results of transient simulations show a strong influence of the surgery staff movements and sliding door opening/closing on the internal flow patterns and in static pressure variation inside the OT. Our proposed method indicates the opportunity of simulating the influence of objects movement in a fluid -filled space using a relatively simple CFD model.