Non-contact Screening Center of Infectious Diseases for Cross Infection Prevention-Focusing on the Viral Aerosol Removal Efficiency by a Ventilation System

ABSTRACT

In this study, to fundamentally solve the risk of cross-infection in screening centers responding to infectious diseases, a new non-contact screening center was developed that supplemented the problems of existing screening centers. Numerical analysis was performed on the effectiveness of a ventilation system to remove viral aerosols and prevent cross-infection. Moreover, full-scale field measurements and SF6 tracer gas simulating viral aerosol was used under the same conditions as it was for the numerical analysis, comparison, and verification when CFD simulations were performed. Currently, COVID-19 screening centers operating in Korea can be divided into five types;the risk of cross-infection is very high due to its structure where the movement of medical staff and suspected patients cannot be separated. As a result of the CFD simulation on the ventilation system of a non-contact screening center, among the 3,000 particles generated from a patient, not a single particle was transmitted from the specimen collection booth to the adjacent examination room. More than 99% of the particles were removed by the ventilation system after 559 seconds. As a result of the in-situ measurement, the concentration of SF6 gas generated in the specimen collection booth was effectively reduced by the ventilation system. Additionally, the SF6 gas was not detected in the examination room due to the maintenance of an appropriate differential pressure. © 2022, Architectural Institute of Korea. All rights reserved.