March Chapter Meeting – Airflow Management for Healthcare Facilities

Air is the primary carrier of heat, moisture, and contaminants in health care facilities such as patient rooms, isolation rooms, and operating rooms. The flow path of supply air plays an important role in determining the air velocities, air temperatures, concentration of contaminants, and path of airborne pathogens in these spaces. These factors in turn determine thermal comfort of occupants, indoor air quality, and potential for transmission of airborne pathogens. This presentation will focus on the importance of HVAC configuration on airflow distribution and flow path of airborne contaminants in patient rooms and operating rooms. In addition, this presentation will cover the applications of active chilled beams, radiant heating and cooling, and displacement ventilation in patient rooms.

Dr. Kishor Khankari, Ph.D., is President at AnSight LLC in Ann Arbor, MI. He provides engineering solutions and insights through Physics based simulations and CFD analysis. Kishor has several years of experience in providing optimized HVAC solutions to a wide variety of applications involving external wind engineering, plume dispersion, smoke exhaust, displacement ventilation, natural ventilation, radiant heating and cooling, and indoor air quality and thermal comfort optimization for office spaces, patient rooms, operating rooms, cleanrooms, justice facilities, data centers, and warehouses. Dr. Khankari has developed a patented technology of a wind band design of exhaust fan assembly systems. He has developed several easy-to-use analytical software tools which are regularly used by design engineers in a variety companies including those in HVAC industry, critical facilities, and automotive industries. A noted expert in his field, he has a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota and has been regularly published in several technical journals and trade magazines. Dr. Khankari has delivered more than 125 DL presentations worldwide on topics related to design and optimization of HVAC systems and made several presentation at various technical conferences and professional meetings. Dr. Kishor Khankari is a Fellow member of ASHRAE. He is currently serving on ASHRAE Board as a Director-at Large. He is a recipient of Louise & Bill Holladay Distinguished Fellow Award, ASHRAE Exceptional and Distinguished Service Awards. He is the past President of Detroit ASHRAE Chapter, past Chair of ASHRAE Technical Committee TC9.11 Clean Spaces, and past Chair of Research Administration Committee (RAC). He is a voting member of Technical Committee TC9.10 Laboratory Systems and TC5.3 Air Distribution. He is a voting member of Standards committees SPC241: Control of Infectious Aerosols and SPC129: Air Change Effectiveness. He is also leading a Multi Task Group (MTG) on Air Change Rates.