Full-Scale Hospital Operating
Room (OR) Experiment Chamber
The
OR chamber comprises a 20’ x 20’ square feet of floor area with a 9-1/2” floor
to ceiling height. Downward laminar flow
system was selected and installed due to the popularity of such diffusers in
the field. The laminar air flow
diffusers are located in a 10' x 8' array surrounding the central surgical
light. The diffuser array size of 76 ft2
would allow the existing Larson HVAC Laboratory to achieve a nominal face
velocity of 30 cfm/ft2. This
velocity can be varied using the variable air volume terminal units to study a
lower diffuser face velocity. Five 2' x
4' troffer fixtures are located around the laminar
air flow array to provide ambient lighting and to simulate the typical lighting
heat gain. Each fixture contains four
32W T8 lamps. The return air is handled
by 2 return air diffusers that are located 3 inches from the floor in opposing
corners of the room. The return air flow
rate is modulated by the return air fan variable frequency drive to provide an
air flow rate offset with the supply air.
Room pressurization of +0.1 in. wg.
is accomplished by maintaining this air flow rate
offset between the supply and return air.
Figure OR laboratory picture
Figure OR laboratory indoor
layout
Rack Simulator
Building and Environment
Simulation Technology Laboratory (BEST Lab)
The
building and
Environment Simulation Technology Laboratory, developed and directed by the PI,
accommodates distributed up-to-date PC systems and a
high-performance parallel computer cluster system with 34 dual-processor nodes,
which can handle the real-time data monitoring, collection, analysis,
prediction, and system control. To deal with real-time transfer requirement of
a significant amount of data, advanced Gig-Ethernet network instead of
conventional Ethernet has been used to break the bottleneck of cluster
performance. The system has been optimized for the best performance of parallel
processing and been widely used for a variety of building and environment
studies. A suite of special simulation programs for building and environment
research have been developed, including climate analysis, airflow simulation,
contaminant dispersion prediction, building system management, etc. Moreover,
the simulation laboratory can be readily connected to the upstairs full-scale
building experimental laboratory, becoming a complete research and education
platform for building and environment study.
RESEARCH AREAS IN BEST
n
Urban Pollution Transportation
n
Building Site Planning
n
n
Building Design Tools
n
Whole-Building Energy Analysis
n
Building Ventilation
n
Building System Optimization
n
Indoor Environment Quality
n
Innovative Building Materials and Envelope Systems
n
Bio-medical Fluid Dynamics
n
Building Security and Immunity
ANIMATIONS