Depending on the nature of the operating room environment, even extremely specific factors such as air velocity at the patient wound location needing to be below a threshold value of 0.2 m/s must be acknowledged.Īll of these aspects are controlled by the ventilation strategy implemented in the given room. These requirements include aspects such as thermal comfort, control of the concentration of pollutants (i.e., bacteria and viruses), and room temperature regulation. Each and every one of these considerations has certain requirements that must be met, in order to maintain a safe and comfortable environment for patients and staff. Image 4: The Derating factor is an option that can be set while defining or editing a fan on the Flow Simulation tree.Ventilation and airflow are especially important in operating rooms for controlling thermo-hygrometric conditions, providing gas removal, diluting airborne contamination and minimizing bacteria transfer airborne. The DF acts on the pressure difference,, and the flow rate,, like this: The Derating factor (DF), see Image 4 below, simulates this reduction of the fan curve. Fans run at less than maximum capacity by reducing their RPMs, which derates the fan curve. Fans are often set to run below their maximum capacity to reduce noise and increase their lifetime, but still achieve their thermal cooling requirements. Image 3: Right-click options for the graph allow you to save it as an image or export it to Excel.ĭerating a fan curve is a new feature in the 2020 release of SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation. Also if you prefer to view and edit your graphs in Excel, there is another option for that as well. You can save the graph out as an image by right-clicking on the graph and choosing the appropriate option from the in-context menu. Image 2: Graph showing how Internal Fan 1 is interpreted in the project model.