This study presents some field measurements in an operating room of air velocity, ambient temperature and particle counts on the operating table. Moreover, computational fluid Dynamics analyses of the operating room were performed and compared with the measurements. Measurements were taken under the preferred operating conditions by surgical staff (at 19 °C) and then at different ambient temperatures (from 20 to 22 °C,varying by one-degree increments) and average inlet air velocities (V_i) (0.1 and 0.2 m/s). The preferred one by surgical staff is 0.1 m/s and the maximum that can be reached is 0.2 m/s, with the current system. The results show that the particle count decreased at V_i of 0.2 m/s and low temperatures.

It is important to provide a regular unidirectional air distribution in an operating room to reduce the number of particles. Measurements were taken in the one of the operating rooms at Uludag University Medical School, with laminar air flow unit and two-cornered outlet which was thought to have some airflow problems. Moreover, a three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics model has been developed where the measurements were taken in. The distributions of air velocity, temperature, and relative humidity have been examined and compared with the measurements to validate the computational fluid dynamics analyses. In addition to present model, four-cornered outlet operating room has been analyzed and compared with the results of two-cornered one. It is concluded that the case of four-cornered outlet provides more suitable thermal distribution, which results in a reduction of the particle numbers in the interior. Although there is no significant change in temperature and relative humidity in the operating room, air distribution changes dramatically.

In this study, thermal insulation thickness used in the outer walls of buildings composing of different insulation applications having the same thermal resistance was optimized by considering condensation. The minimum insulation...