Innovative Design Solutions for Burn Intensive Care Units

摘要

Burn ICUs have among the most stringent design criteria for patient rooms in hospital design. Communication between the architect designing the room layout and the mechanical engineer designing the ventilation system is critical to ensure that their design converge to meet the tight comfort criteria. The Computational Fluid Dynamic analysis played an important part in this process for a University Medical Center, and a physical test of the final set-up confirmed the design and validated the CFD model. In a Burn ICU, the patient is weak and sensitive due the high body surface temperature caused by the burns. To ensure comfort for the patient, strict design criteria are to be met for both air speeds and temperatures. Velocity at the patient is not to exceed 50fpm (0.25m/s), and the environmental temperature around the patient is to be kept at 70 degrees Fahrenheit plus or minus 2 degrees (21.1°C ±1°C) in cooling mode. It is the role of the mechanical engineer to ensure that these criteria are achieved inside the Burn ICU. Therefore communication with the architect who designs the room layout is crucial. The Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis played a very important part in facilitating the communication with the architect. Several design configurations were modeled and investigated to optimize layout and ensure that comfort criteria are still maintained. The results from the modeling helped provide a visual tool that the mechanical engineer could use to convey the alternatives to the architect about the position of the supply grilles and radiant panels and the effect on the flow and temperature patterns. Finally, a physical test was carried out to confirm the final set-up of the Burn ICU. The CFD analysis enabled to restrict the number of tests to be carried out, ensuring faster testing and suppression of unnecessary tests. The results between the CFD analysis and the physical tests are being compared to further the validation of the numerical method. The two techniques helped to design a better room for the patient.