Hospital isolation rooms are vital for the containment (when under negative pressure) of patients with, or the protection (when under positive pressure) of patients, from airborne infectious agents. Such facilities were essential for the management of highly contagious patients during the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreaks and the more recent 2009 A/H1N1 influenza pandemic. Many different types of door designs are used in the construction of such isolation rooms, which may be related to the space available and affordability. Using colored food dye as a tracer, the qualitative effects of door-opening motions on the dissemination of potentially contaminated air into and out of a single isolation room were visualized and filmed using Reynolds-number-equivalent, small-scale, water-tank models fitted with programmable door-opening and moving human figure motions. Careful scaling considerations involved in the design and construction of these water-tank models enabled these results to be accurately extrapolated to the full-scale situation. Four simple types of door design were tested: variable speed single and double, sliding and hinged doors, in combination with the moving human figure. The resulting video footage was edited, synchronized and presented in a series of split-screen formats. From these experiments, it is clear that double-hinged doors pose the greatest risk of leakage into or out of the room, followed by (in order of decreasing risk) single-hinged, double-sliding and single-sliding doors. The relative effect of the moving human figure on spreading any potential contamination was greatest with the sliding doors, as the bulk airflows induced were large relative to those resulting from these door-opening motions. However, with the hinged doors, the airflows induced by these door-opening motions were significantly greater. Further experiments involving a simulated ventilated environment are required, but from these findings alone, it appears that sliding-doors are far more effective for hospital isolation room containment.
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机译：医院隔离室对于遏制（负压时）患者或保护（正压时）患者免受空气传播的传染病至关重要。在2003年严重急性呼吸道综合症（SARS）爆发和最近的2009 A / H1N1流感大流行期间，此类设施对于控制高传染性患者至关重要。在这种隔离室的构造中使用了许多不同类型的门设计，这可能与可用空间和负担能力有关。使用彩色食用染料作为示踪剂，使用雷诺数等效的小规模水箱模型可视化并拍摄了开门运动对在单个隔离室内外传播潜在污染空气的定性影响并进行了拍摄配有可编程的开门功能和可移动的人物动作。这些水箱模型的设计和构建过程中仔细考虑了缩放比例，因此可以将这些结果准确地外推到满量程情况。测试了四种简单的门设计类型：变速单门和双门，滑动门和铰链门以及可移动的人形。所产生的视频片段被编辑，同步并以一系列分屏格式呈现。从这些实验中可以明显看出，双开门构成了最大的泄漏到房间或从房间泄漏的风险，其次是（按降低风险的顺序）单开，双滑和单滑门。由于滑动产生的大量气流相对于这些开门运动产生的大量气流，滑动的门上移动的人体人物对传播任何潜在污染物的相对影响最大。然而，对于铰链门，由这些开门运动引起的气流明显更大。还需要进行涉及模拟通风环境的进一步实验，但是仅从这些发现来看，滑动门似乎对于医院隔离室的封闭要有效得多。
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