Numerical simulation of thermal environment at different relative humidity levels in one operating room of St. Olav’s hospital

Abstract

This study investigated the influence of three different levels of relative humidity, 20%, 40%, and 60% on the thermal comfort of surgical patient and staff in one operating room of St. Olav’s hospital with mixing ventilation. The results of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) are used to calculate the Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) and the Predicted Percentage of Dissatisfied (PPD) values in order to evaluate the thermal comfort levels of surgical patient and staff. The calculated values of PMV and PPD indicate the thermal environment may be acceptable for the patient with different relative humidity levels, while surgical staffs feel always warm in all three scenarios.