Bioaerosol deposition in single and two-bed hospital rooms: a numerical and experimental study

This study considers the ability of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations to accurately predict bioaerosol deposition in indoor environments; it then further explores the influence that different room layouts have on these deposition patterns. Experiments are conducted to quantify the spatial deposition of aerosolised Staphylococcus aureus in an aerobiology test room (4.26m (L) x 3.36m (W) x 2.26m (H)). Three different room layouts were considered in this study: the empty room, a single patient and two-bed hospital accommodation replicas. CFD simulations of these scenarios show that a realistic prediction of spatial deposition is feasible and that a Reynolds Stress (RSM) turbulence model yields significantly better results than the k-ε RNG turbulence model used as a default feature in most indoor air simulations. Experimental and simulation results both demonstrate that small particle bioaerosols are dispersed throughout a room with only slightly higher deposition close to the source. However, a physical partition separating patients is shown to be effective at reducing cross-contamination of neighbouring patient zones