A preliminary parametric study on performance of SARS virus cleaner using CFD simulation

Abstract

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus cleaner is a newly developed equipment that can provide a localized, more effective way to remove body fluids with SARS virus emitted by SARS patients inside SARS triage ward during the deep-cutting therapy. One of the major concerns is how to achieve the effective removal of poisoned fluid by such individual extraction system. The most realized way of gathering data for optimization would be to perform an in situ measurement. However, such a method is dangerous and ineffective since the virus is highly infectious and can hardly be visualized. With the merit of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), large data can be generated by computational simulations. The parametric numerical simulation presented is a cost-effective study that makes use of CFD. In the numerical experiments, viruses are assumed as airborne contaminants and their dispersion is modelled by species continuity equation. In numerical simulations, coughing of patients is modelled by a sudden high velocity jet with contaminated air. To optimize the performance of the extraction system, different extracting flow-rates combined with different extraction hood plans are considered. It is expected to find out the optimal hood/room plan and the minimum possible virus spread via CFD simulations. The CFD results may also provide information for further improving the current prototype of SARS virus cleaner.