Local ventilation for general patient rooms

Numerous studies on ventilation of general patient rooms have been performed, while most of the studies have focused on total volume air distribution (mixing or displacement). This study presents results of local ventilation (LV) aimed to efficiently protect a lying person from cross-infection due to airborne respiratory viruses.

Experiments performed in a climate chamber (4.7 m × 4.7 m × 2.6 m) included LV when used alone and when coupled with background mixing ventilation (MV). A thermal manikin and a heated standing dummy were used to simulate respectively a patient lying in bed and an infected doctor or nurse standing beside the bed.

The LV was able to reduce substantially the exposure of the patient to the infected air exhaled by the doctor. The results show that the efficiency of the LV depended mostly on its supply air flow rate. An increase of the background ventilation's supply flow rate, i.e. increase of the air change rate in the room, was less important.

At 15 L/s supplied by LV the concentration of a contaminant at the patient's mouth decreased by 76%. The findings of the paper give insights for researchers and designers in developing a novel ventilation system to be used during a pandemic in general patient rooms.