ABSTRACT
Since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, complications for healthcare workers in hospitals have increased. Healthcare workers have had to develop innovative solutions to deal with the shortage of resources and isolation rooms for those infected with the coronavirus. One of the solutions used is to convert the general patient room into a negative pressure room to prevent airborne infections from leaking into the surrounding environment. However, this was not always easy due to many limitations, such as the overall design of the chamber and the unavailability of mechanical parts to create negative pressure. Another solution is to use medical masks. However, they are not appropriate, especially for patients who suffer from breath shortness. With all these problems, a simple solution was reached in the present work, which is to create a portable isolation room that is simple in terms of cost and implementation. The objective was to investigate the dispersion of the infection inside the portable chamber in addition to its effectiveness in minimizing the risk of infection for healthcare workers. Thus, the airborne infection is eliminated by connecting the exit of the portable chamber directly to a vacuum pump. In the present study, a comparison was made between a normal room without a portable chamber and another with a portable chamber. Six different strategies were applied to remove pollutants. The results showed that strategy 6 was more effective than other strategies (2, 3, 4, and 5) by percentages of 61.6%, 70.4%, 52.4%, and 33.0%, respectively. © 2022, Journal of Advanced Research in Fluid Mechanics and Thermal Sciences. All Rights Reserved.
ABSTRACT
This paper shows different simulations of airflow patterns for the human face during exhalation with and without wearing a protective mask. The nasal airways were defined based on biological anthropology and medicine instructions. A threedimensional body-manikin of African athlete of 1.8 meters tall was employed to the expiration (exhalation) flow study using ANSYS-Fluent software. There were two different mask models included in the flow simulations and were manufactured by means of 3D-printing technology. The two manufactured masks were designed using SolidWorks software. The study was carried out four times during the exhalation process of a human wearing the two masks and without wearing them. The velocity magnitudes were significantly different while wearing the mask in comparison to the cases of not wearing it. The results demonstrate the capability of using 3D-printed masks as a replacement of the traditional medical masks (i.e., N95 and surgical masks) with retaining the same functions of the protective mask. Thus, based on the present study and due to the great shortage of surgical and medical masks availability locally and globally, the 3D-printed masks might be a temporary solution to limit the vast spread of contagious diseases like the dangerous COVID-19 outbreak. © 2021. All Rights Reserved.