A CFD Simulation of a Negative Pressurized Medical Container for COVID-19 Testing

Abstract

Fast screening centers are being widely utilized in response to outbreaks and epidemics such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Although various types of screening centers exist, those that use negative pressurized medical rooms have the advantage of being operational regardless of the weather. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation was used in order to determine the required minimum ventilation rate of a sample collection booth, as well as the corresponding pressure difference between a medical examination room and a sample collection room. In order to prevent cross-contamination between the healthcare worker and testee, the sample collection booth exhaust volume flow rate should be higher than 450 CMH when the sample collection room air change rate is 15 air changes per hour. When maintaining the exhaust volume flow rate at these levels, suspending particles decreased to 2% of the total discharged particles within 2 minutes, and particle removal efficiency reached 99.9% in approximately 6 minutes. Discharged particles were dispersed throughout the sample collection room and deposited on the test subject, chair, sidewalls, ceiling, and floor. Therefore, these results show that surface disinfection should be performed after the testee is tested.