ABSTRACT

Operating rooms are exigent places where it is important to set the appropriate air quality patterns as well as the aseptic conditions to ensure the success of the operations. These conditions are obtained using Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning systems (HVAC), which despite consuming a large amount of the buildings energy (Macario et al., 1995), they are necessary to prevent the risk of infection to the patient during the surgical procedures, what ensures safety and an appropriate comfort level for both staff and patient. To ensure good settings for all the operating rooms, the parameters are standardised in the number of air changes per hour, temperature range, relative humidity and pressurisation (Balaras et al., 2007, ASHRAE Standard 170P 2006). In a study elaborated by Zwolińska and Bogdan, it was concluded that the surgeon, working with a high metabolic rate, feels uncomfortable after a time (Zwolińska & Bogdan 2012). While the human body tries to metabolically adapt to the environment conditions, the necessary effort will result in thermal discomfort sensation and, therefore, in lower work performance with

A CFD simulation was carried out accounting for surgical lamps’ radiation heating, air humidity, airflow patterns and temperature distribution. The post processing of data has allowed the calculation of PMV index values for the entire domain.