Rocky Mountain Labs
National Institute of Health Integrated Research Facility (NIH)

Project Description

Mechanical Responsibilities and Challenges: Full mechanical engineering services including controls and commissioning. In addition, the Design Team was challenged to develop a room air flow control strategy that would maintain the required air change rate and directional air flow at a steady negative pressure. A simulation facility was built allowing the Design Team to develop and test an air flow control design which met the challenge and exceeded the steady state pressures targeted. The final design provided the air changes at ± 10 Pa pressure fluctuation, which has become a BSL4 Laboratory design benchmark. Electrical Responsibilities and Challenges: Complete electrical engineering design services from the ground up including multiple levels of redundancy. Electrical challenges included: redundancy of power sources to critical loads resulted in complex distribution system design, extensive emergency and uninterruptible power, closure/sealing of electrical penetrations for Level 4 pressure retention and corrosive washdown of room devices, implementation of cost savings to stay within budget without reducing redundancy/initiatives of electrical services, and complexity of specialized systems for biohazard control, fire alarm and security. Electrical and electronic systems are designed to support the complex mechanical and control systems associated with intermediate level and high-level containment. In addition, they directly contribute to human safety and security