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An Improved FFR Design with a Ventilation Fan: CFD Simulation and Validation

This article presents an improved Filtering Facepiece Respirator (FFR) designed to increase the comfort of wearers during low-moderate work. The improved FFR aims to lower the deadspace temperature and CO(2) level by an active ventilation fan. The reversing modeling is used to build the 3D geometric...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Zhang, Xiaotie, Li, Hui, Shen, Shengnan, Rao, Yu, Chen, Feng
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4959710/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27454123
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0159848
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author Zhang, Xiaotie
Li, Hui
Shen, Shengnan
Rao, Yu
Chen, Feng
author_facet Zhang, Xiaotie
Li, Hui
Shen, Shengnan
Rao, Yu
Chen, Feng
author_sort Zhang, Xiaotie
collection PubMed
description This article presents an improved Filtering Facepiece Respirator (FFR) designed to increase the comfort of wearers during low-moderate work. The improved FFR aims to lower the deadspace temperature and CO(2) level by an active ventilation fan. The reversing modeling is used to build the 3D geometric model of this FFR; the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation is then introduced to investigate the flow field. Based on the simulation result, the ventilation fan of the improved FFR can fit the flow field well when placed in the proper blowing orientation; streamlines from this fan show a cup-shape distribution and are perfectly matched to the shape of the FFR and human face when the fan blowing inward. In the deadspace of the improved FFR, the CO(2) volume fraction is controlled by the optimized flow field. In addition, an experimental prototype of the improved FFR has been tested to validate the simulation. A wireless temperature sensor is used to detect the temperature variation inside the prototype FFR, deadspace temperature is lowered by 2 K compared to the normal FFR without a fan. An infrared camera (IRC) method is used to elucidate the temperature distribution on the prototype FFR's outside surface and the wearer's face, surface temperature is lowered notably. Both inside and outside temperature results from the simulation are in agreement with experimental results. Therefore, adding an inward-blowing fan on the outer surface of an N95 FFR is a feasible approach to reducing the deadspace CO(2) concentration and improve temperature comfort.
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spelling pubmed-49597102016-08-08 An Improved FFR Design with a Ventilation Fan: CFD Simulation and Validation Zhang, Xiaotie Li, Hui Shen, Shengnan Rao, Yu Chen, Feng PLoS One Research Article This article presents an improved Filtering Facepiece Respirator (FFR) designed to increase the comfort of wearers during low-moderate work. The improved FFR aims to lower the deadspace temperature and CO(2) level by an active ventilation fan. The reversing modeling is used to build the 3D geometric model of this FFR; the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation is then introduced to investigate the flow field. Based on the simulation result, the ventilation fan of the improved FFR can fit the flow field well when placed in the proper blowing orientation; streamlines from this fan show a cup-shape distribution and are perfectly matched to the shape of the FFR and human face when the fan blowing inward. In the deadspace of the improved FFR, the CO(2) volume fraction is controlled by the optimized flow field. In addition, an experimental prototype of the improved FFR has been tested to validate the simulation. A wireless temperature sensor is used to detect the temperature variation inside the prototype FFR, deadspace temperature is lowered by 2 K compared to the normal FFR without a fan. An infrared camera (IRC) method is used to elucidate the temperature distribution on the prototype FFR's outside surface and the wearer's face, surface temperature is lowered notably. Both inside and outside temperature results from the simulation are in agreement with experimental results. Therefore, adding an inward-blowing fan on the outer surface of an N95 FFR is a feasible approach to reducing the deadspace CO(2) concentration and improve temperature comfort. Public Library of Science 2016-07-25 /pmc/articles/PMC4959710/ /pubmed/27454123 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0159848 Text en © 2016 Zhang et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Zhang, Xiaotie
Li, Hui
Shen, Shengnan
Rao, Yu
Chen, Feng
An Improved FFR Design with a Ventilation Fan: CFD Simulation and Validation
title An Improved FFR Design with a Ventilation Fan: CFD Simulation and Validation
title_full An Improved FFR Design with a Ventilation Fan: CFD Simulation and Validation
title_fullStr An Improved FFR Design with a Ventilation Fan: CFD Simulation and Validation
title_full_unstemmed An Improved FFR Design with a Ventilation Fan: CFD Simulation and Validation
title_short An Improved FFR Design with a Ventilation Fan: CFD Simulation and Validation
title_sort improved ffr design with a ventilation fan: cfd simulation and validation
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4959710/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27454123
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0159848
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