TITLE:
Design and Characterization of an Aerosol Test Chamber for Emergency Response Patient Contamination Control Simulation and Research
AUTHORS:
Megan L. Steele, Emily M. Spatz, George P. Lemmer, Jacob M. Denney, Jeremy M. Slagley, Casey W. Cooper, Robert M. Eninger
KEYWORDS:
Test Chamber Characterization, Aerosol Generation, Exposure Chamber Design, Air Velocity Mapping, Spatial Variability, CFD Modeling, Patient Decontamination
JOURNAL NAME:
Occupational Diseases and Environmental Medicine,
Vol.11 No.1,
February
27,
2023
ABSTRACT: Contaminated or infected patients present a risk of cross-contamination for emergency responders, attending medical personnel and medical facilities as they enter a treatment facility. The controlled conditions of an aerosol test chamber are required to examine factors of contamination, decontamination, and cross-contamination. This study presents the design, construction, and a method for characterizing an aerosol test chamber for a full-sized manikin on a standard North Atlantic Treaty Organization litter. The methodology combined air velocity measurements, aerosol particle counts and size distributions, and computational fluid dynamics modeling to describe the chamber’s performance in three dimensions. This detailed characterization facilitates future experimental design by predicting chamber performance for a variety of patient-focused research.