The International                        UPDATED 30th November 2011
Journal of Ventilation
Published Quarterly www.ijovent.org.uk          Subscribe to Journal  Online 

December 2011 Edition of the IJV now Published  Call for Papers

IJV now included in the Science Citation Index

Paper 6

Natural Personalised Ventilation - A Novel Approach

Z.A. Adamu, M.J. Cook and A.D.F. Price

School of Civil and Building Engineering, Loughborough University, LE11 3TU, UK

Abstract

The need to protect susceptible patients from cross-infection resulting from airborne pathogens is essential in hospitals, especially when patient immunity is either suppressed due to medical procedures or compromised by ailment. Personalised ventilation (PV) is a method of creating a local zone of high air quality around such patients. However, contemporary PV techniques are based on mechanical ventilation, which adds to the energy burden of healthcare buildings. In single-bed wards, a potential source of infection could be other occupants such as visitors and healthcare workers. Threats may also come from airborne pathogens migrating from adjacent zones, especially if the single-bed wards in question are not positively pressurised. While the World Health Organisation (WHO) has issued guidelines on using natural ventilation to control infectious bio-aerosols in hospital wards (with flow rates of up to 60 L/s.patient), how to achieve this rate without high energy and carbon costs, remains unanswered. The objective of the research reported here is to demonstrate a novel approach of using low-energy, buoyancy-driven natural airflow for personalised ventilation of single-bed hospital wards. The investigation has been carried out by undertaking dynamic thermal simulations (DTS) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. Findings indicate that, given appropriate design, it is possible to achieve personal protection for vulnerable patients using a natural mode of ventilation alone. Co-occupants could also benefit from the mixing characteristics offered by the proposed system, which does not occur in typical buoyancy-driven displacement ventilation.

Key words:  natural personalised ventilation, buoyancy, single-bed ward, dynamic thermal simulation, computational fluid dynamics.

Contents

Paper 1
System Design for Demand Controlled Ventilation in Multi-Family Dwellings

Paper 2
A Long-Term Modelling Study of Ventilation and VOC Distribution in Multi-family Residential Buildings in the Severe Cold Region of China

Paper 3
Evaluating the Influence of Window Types on the Natural Ventilation Performance of Residential Buildings in Hong Kong

Paper 4
Effects of Urban Ventilation Patterns on the Carbon Monoxide Concentration in a High-Rise Mega City

Paper 5
A Measurement Study on the Indoor Climate of a College Classroom

Paper 6
Natural Personalised Ventilation - A Novel Approach

Paper 7
Experimental Study of Turbulent Structures in a Non Isothermal Horizontal Jet Issuing from a Round Nozzle Distanced from a Wall

Paper 8
Case Study Assessment of Local and General Thermal Comfort by Means of Local Skin Temperature

A Guide to Energy Efficient Ventilation

Published in 1996, this Guide is aimed at providing a simplified approach to ventilation with particular emphasis on its impact on air quality and energy demand. Numerical discussion is kept to a minimum but sufficient guidance and data are given to enable basic calculations. 254 Pages. Click here for more details