Flow regimes and thermal patterns in air conditioned operating theaters

Airflow characteristics in the air-conditioned surgical operating theatres play an importantrole to obtain comfort and hygiene conditions. This paper utilizes a full 3D Computational FluidDynamics (CFD) model to assess the airflow characteristics in surgical operating rooms. The aim ofthis work is to investigate the flow regimes and air temperature distributions in operating theatres toarrive at a better design leading to improved comfort with the optimal indoor air quality (IAQ). Thepresent investigation made use of a non-commercial CFD Code 3DHVAC in predictions in variousoperating theatres configurations. The CFD modelling techniques solved the continuity, momentum,energy equations and k-epsilon model for turbulence modelling in the Navier-Stocks equations. TheSIMPLE algorithm is used as equations solver. Grid sizes used in the present work exceeded 400,000 grid nodes in some cases which adequately allow better and meaningful predictions of the flow regimes. It was found that the location of the air extract port represents a critical design factor and would have a direct effect on the energy efficiency of the airside of the air conditioning system. The present work raises several questions in the room airflow motion prediction techniques such as the effects of turbulence model, grid node generation, thermal interactions, and numerical schemes on the flow regimes. The present work concludes with notable considerations that should be fulfilled to obtain efficient air flow regimes in operating theatres.