UR-UVGI (Upper Room Ultraviolet Germicidal Irradiation) systems can be used as an additional countermeasure of ventilation systems against airborne infectious diseases in healthcare-related buildings. In this study, an UR-UVGI system was evaluated using a novel CFD simulation method in a model room used in an experimental case. The results for several cases showed inactivation rate of 98.3 ~ 96.2% for airborne vaccinia virus in the steady state condition. Equivalent air change per hour (EACH) of the UR-UVGI system was 4.5 ~ 16.5 ACH in the decay condition. Heat boxes accelerated the inactivation of airborne virus by UR-UVGI. However, the discrepancy between simulation and experiment results was observed probably because of lack of the detailed experimental conditions.
This research was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (NRF-2017R1D1A1B03033016)
