Experimental variation of the personal exposure in a hospital room influenced by wall heat gains
Homogenous indoor temperature of the walls in hospital rooms may be a difficult condition to be reached. Solar radiation increases heat loads in building walls, especially glazed walls, increasing their superficial temperature. This paper aims to investigate the influence of a wall heat gain, simula...
| Autores: | , , , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2019 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia |
| Repositorio: | e-spacio. Repositorio Institucional de la UNED |
| Idioma: | inglés |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:e-spacio.uned.es:20.500.14468/24826 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14468/24826 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | 33 Ciencias Tecnológicas::3313 Tecnología e ingeniería mecánicas internal wall surface temperature wall heat gains intake fraction exposure to exhaled contaminants mixing ventilation |
| Sumario: | Homogenous indoor temperature of the walls in hospital rooms may be a difficult condition to be reached. Solar radiation increases heat loads in building walls, especially glazed walls, increasing their superficial temperature. This paper aims to investigate the influence of a wall heat gain, simulated experimentally by a radiant wall (RW), on the distribution of indoor exhaled contaminants and therefore the exposure to a person. An experimental setup of a single hospital room is considered with a patient in repose (PR) being the source of exhaled contaminants, and a health worker (HW) standing and being the exposed person. Four different positions of HW relative to PR and RW are studied. The experiments are carried out using 6 and 12 air changes per hour (ACH) and with active and inactive RW, simulating sunny and shaded conditions of an external wall. The concentration of exhaled contaminants is measured in the microenvironment and the inhalation of HW. The exposure of HW to the exhaled contaminants is compared for a total of 16 experiments. Results show that wall heat gains significantly change the distribution of exhaled contaminants. RW active generates “clean” and “polluted” areas of exhaled contaminants at both sides of the bed that changes when using 6 or 12 ACH. Moreover, with RW active, the use of 12 ACH not always leads to a decrease of HW exposure. The intake fraction, IF, is a more suitable index than the personal exposure, einh, since illustrates the dilution of inhaled contaminants respect to the source. |
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