Influence of ceiling fan’s speed and direction on efficacy of upper-room ultraviolet germicidal irradiation—Part I: experimental

Publication date: Available online 12 April 2014
Source:Building and Environment
Author(s): S.N. Rudnick , J.J. McDevitt , G.M. Hunt , M.T. Stawnychy , R.L. Vincent , P.W. Brickner
Increasing a ceiling fan’s speed from its lowest setting of 61 rpm, which resulted in 0.77 m³/s of airflow, to its highest setting of 176 rpm, which resulted in 2.5 m³/s of airflow, or having the fan blow either upward or downward had no statistically significant effect on the efficacy of upper-room ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI). This outcome suggests that air circulation due to the ceiling fan was sufficient and that any additional increase would not improve efficacy. Numerous experimental studies on upper-room UVGI in which fans were used to provide air mixing have been published. However, none have quantified the air movement produced by these fans or described their tests in sufficient detail to allow results to be compared to predictions using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The present work provides the required information. In addition to the usual boundary conditions needed for CFD, we made experimental measurements of UV susceptibility of the microorganisms used in the upper-room UVGI tests. We measured UV susceptibilities for M. parafortuitum and B. atrophaeus spores to be 0.074 and 0.018 m²/J, respectively. In a previous publication, we reported the spatial distribution of fluence rate, which is also needed for predicting efficacy from CFD. In a companion paper referred to as Part II, upper-room UVGI efficacy was predicted by both Eulerian and Lagrangian CFD and compared to the experimental results from the present study.