Student Senior Project and COVID-19

Alireza Kavianpour; John Castellanos; Adam Doty; Michael Sweeting; Isasio Velez; Nathan Watson

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Conference: 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access
Location: Virtual Conference
Publication Date: July 26, 2021
Start Date: July 26, 2021
End Date: July 19, 2022
Conference Session: Computing and Information Technology Division Technical Session 4
Tagged Division: Computing and Information Technology
Page Count: 13
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--37760
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/37760
Download Count: 309

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Paper Authors

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Alireza Kavianpour DeVry University, Pomona

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Dr. Alireza Kavianpour received his PH.D. Degree from University of Southern California (USC). He is currently Senior Professor at DeVry University, Pomona, CA. Dr. Kavianpour is the author and co-author of over fifty technical papers all published in IEEE Journals or referred conferences. Before joining DeVry University he was a researcher at the University of California, Irvine and consultant at Qualcom Inc. His main interests are in the areas of embedded systems and computer architecture.

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Abstract

Abstract In this paper, student senior project will be discussed. This project related to the design of a negative pressure room in your house in tandem with a standard residential HVAC system. The need for such a room is urgent because of the recent pandemic that has disrupted both the economy and the health and welfare of not only in the US but the entire world. This project is geared towards providing a means to quarantine family members safely and securely in a room within a home. This isolation room can be controlled and monitored and has an alarm to alert family members of system warnings and malfunctions. The idea is to make the system simple enough that users could install it with a little modification in the room. Because of the COVID-19 outbreak and its viable potential to overwhelm health care facilities as observed in the most of countries, the authors hope to provide a cost-effective solution that could ease the demand of the isolation room in the hospitals. 1- Introduction: Negative pressure rooms are in high demand with the current outbreak and in the foreseeable future. This technology and various applications can be observed throughout the healthcare industry and are commonly used for patients suffering from such respiratory ailments as tuberculosis. Because of the ease at which COVID-19 is spread along with numerous other respiratory illnesses, converting a room in a residence to a negative pressure application could prove beneficial on several platforms. Current guidelines of the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers’ (ASHRAE) Standard 170 suggest “Ventilation of Health Care Facilities, which is integrated into the Facility Guidelines Institute's Guidelines for Design and Construction of Health Care Facilities, requires each isolation room to have a permanently installed visual device or mechanism to constantly monitor the air pressure differential of the room when occupied by a patient who requires isolation.” Utilizing a similar device to interface with a user to monitor and control negative pressure inside a typical room in a residence will allow us to reach the goal of our project, as well as providing an audible and visual alarm that can warn other residents of potential system malfunctions and needs for repairing the system. Health care facilities have stringent standards and regulations pertaining to such matters geared towards protecting health care professionals and other patients. It is our goal to create a safe environment for a family that may fall subject to quarantine and relieve some of the stress healthcare facilities may face. It is not our intent to completely replicate the medical standards a healthcare facility is required to uphold. Family members who have been diagnosed with airborne infectious diseases will drastically reduce spreading infection through the adaption of this project’s goal. Negative pressure rooms require a minimum of 12 air exchanges per hour and maintain a minimum -0.010 inches of WC. By utilizing standard ASHRAE calculations for residential applications we can achieve the goal of negative pressure for prolonged amounts of time using continuous duty motor applications. Health Facilities Management states “Exhaust from negative-pressure isolation rooms, associated anterooms and associated toilet rooms must be discharged directly to the outdoors without mixing with exhaust from any non-AII rooms.” This means we must inform the user that any return ducts will have to be sealed off, so the contaminated air does not make its way back to the air-handler potentially spreading the infection. This can be achieved through a step by step set of instructions provided to the homeowner upon installation. Supply air from the HVAC system will have to be considered while performing our calculations as static pressure from the house will affect potential pressure differentials. Sealing of the room will also be an important aspect pertaining to this application and step by step instruction manual will further assist in achieving and maintaining negative pressure. With the current outbreak scientists and healthcare professionals around the world are teaming up to battle this epidemic. With persons being sent home from over impacted healthcare facilities, negative pressure technologies may be the answer to combating such infections.

Citation
Format

Kavianpour, A., & Castellanos, J., & Doty, A., & Sweeting, M., & Velez, I., & Watson , N. (2021, July), Student Senior Project and COVID-19 Paper presented at 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference. 10.18260/1-2--37760

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Abstract
In this paper, student senior project  will be discussed. This project related to the design of a negative pressure room in your house in tandem with a standard residential HVAC system. The need for such a room is urgent because of the recent pandemic that has disrupted both the economy and the health and welfare of not only in the US but the entire world.  This project is geared towards providing a means to quarantine family members safely and securely in a room within a home. This isolation room can be controlled and monitored and has an alarm to alert family members of system warnings and malfunctions.  The idea is to make the system simple enough that users could install it with a little modification in the room. 
Because of the COVID-19 outbreak and its viable potential to overwhelm health care facilities as observed in the most of countries, the authors hope to provide a cost-effective solution that could ease the demand of the isolation room in the hospitals.
1- Introduction:
Negative pressure rooms are in high demand with the current outbreak and in the foreseeable future. This technology and various applications can be observed throughout the healthcare industry and are commonly used for patients suffering from such respiratory ailments as tuberculosis. Because of the ease at which COVID-19 is spread along with numerous other respiratory illnesses, converting a room in a residence to a negative pressure application could prove beneficial on several platforms. Current guidelines of the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers’ (ASHRAE) Standard 170 suggest “Ventilation of Health Care Facilities, which is integrated into the Facility Guidelines Institute&#39;s Guidelines for Design and Construction of Health Care Facilities, requires each isolation room to have a permanently installed visual device or mechanism to constantly monitor the air pressure differential of the room when occupied by a patient who requires isolation.” Utilizing a similar device to interface with a user to monitor and control negative pressure inside a typical room in a residence will allow us to reach the goal of our project, as well as providing an audible and visual alarm that can warn other residents of potential system malfunctions and needs for repairing the system. 
Health care facilities have stringent standards and regulations pertaining to such matters geared towards protecting health care professionals and other patients. It is our goal to create a safe environment for a family that may fall subject to quarantine and relieve some of the stress healthcare facilities may face. It is not our intent to completely replicate the medical standards a healthcare facility is required to uphold. Family members who have been diagnosed with airborne infectious diseases will drastically reduce spreading infection through the adaption of this project’s goal.
Negative pressure rooms require a minimum of 12 air exchanges per hour and maintain a minimum -0.010 inches of WC. By utilizing standard ASHRAE calculations for residential applications we can achieve the goal of negative pressure for prolonged amounts of time using continuous duty motor applications. Health Facilities Management states “Exhaust from negative-pressure isolation rooms, associated anterooms and associated toilet rooms must be discharged directly to the outdoors without mixing with exhaust from any non-AII rooms.” This means we must inform the user that any return ducts will have to be sealed off, so the contaminated air does not make its way back to the air-handler potentially spreading the infection. This can be achieved through a step by step set of instructions provided to the homeowner upon installation. 
Supply air from the HVAC system will have to be considered while performing our calculations as static pressure from the house will affect potential pressure differentials. Sealing of the room will also be an important aspect pertaining to this application and step by step instruction manual will further assist in achieving and maintaining negative pressure. With the current outbreak scientists and healthcare professionals around the world are teaming up to battle this epidemic. With persons being sent home from over impacted healthcare facilities, negative pressure technologies may be the answer to combating such infections.                       
 

AU  - Alireza Kavianpour
AU  - John Castellanos
AU  - Adam Doty
AU  - Michael Sweeting
AU  - Isasio Velez
AU  - Nathan Watson 
CY  - Virtual Conference
DA  - 2021/07/26
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Student Senior Project and COVID-19
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/37760
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--37760
ER  -