Masters Degree Project in cooperation with KTH

Background

Operating room (OR) in hospital, where the surgical interventions are carried out, should be kept as a sterile environment. Infections that extend within the wound margins following a surgical procedure are commonly referred to as surgical-site infection (SSI). Postoperative SSIs are serious health-care-associated infections that contribute to higher rates of patient morbidity and mortality, loss of productivity, reduced quality of life, increased hospitalization time and patient dissatisfaction. It has been estimated that 98% of bacteria found in surgical wounds comes from the air.
Opening the door of OR leads to a breakdown in isolation conditions and may cause infectious air to leak from the adjacent room/corridor into the OR. Altering surrounding parameters such as door opening and passing can change the dynamics of airflow pattern. This may add turbulence to the air stream, which has been associated with a faster spread of airborne organisms. Density differences caused by temperature differences can also set up a large exchange of airflow between the OR and adjacent rooms. Opening a hinged door leads to a sweeping action, which can move a significant volume of infectious air through the open doorway.

Objective
The objective of this master thesis, is studying the effect of door opening (both hinged and sliding doors) on the airflow pattern and contaminant distribution within an OR, by performing CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) simulations. Currently this can be partly achieved with the existing software programs. The intention of defining this master thesis is to explore the possibility of solving these type of problems in a more efficient and accurate way. To the best of our knowledge CFD++ gives us better results compared to the other programs in the market because of advanced overset mesh capabilities which is required for modeling the movement of the door.

Required background
Knowledge on Fluid Mechanics and Computational Fluid Dynamics,

Work environment
Student will work in a team composed of researchers from industry and academia at Fluid and Climate Technology division, KTH. Student have chance to learn valuable technique and information regarding CFD simulations in indoor environment.

Methodology
Software programs Pointwise and CFD++ will be hired to perform the simulations. Pointwise is a preprocessing tool to generate the proper mesh for the simulations.

The work shall follow basic instruction from School of ABE at KTH and is divided into the following parts:

1. A literature study
2. Perform CFD simulation including pre-processing, solve and post-processing
3. Model validation accomplishment by comparisons to published measurement data from the literature.
4. Draft the thesis and presentation

For more information and application please contact:
Sasan Sadrizadeh at KTH Royal Institute of Technology ssad@kth.se
or Faranggis Bagheri at Go Virtual faranggis.bagheri@govirtual.se