Cyclone negative pressure pump for efficient purification of airborne contaminants*

The medical facility needs a negatively pressurized room to treat respiratory disease patients such as COVID-19. These days, the conventional negative pressure pump typically has low-speed suction flow and no active control. These flow conditions could not efficiently purify airborne contaminants and it could be disorganized by the movement of medical staff in a hospital, and therefore airborne pathogens could be remained and mixed indoors. In this study, we developed a negative pressure pump having a cyclone flow at the inlet, which was numerically investigated. Firstly, the particle purification efficiency of the conventional and the cyclone negative pressure pump was compared in the case of patients covered with the contaminants. The pollutants covering the patient were collected faster for the cyclone pressure pump. Secondly, the purification efficiency was tested for the case of the patient's breathing and coughing case. We observed that for both cases the cyclone negative pressure pump would be more efficient to purify the contaminants. Furthermore, we tried to optimize the position of cyclone pumps for better performance. As a result, we demonstrated that the airborne aerosol or saliva droplets could be efficiently and effectively collected by controlling indoor airflow.