%0 Journal Article
%K Indoor environment department
%K Ventilation
%K Airflow and pollutant transport group
%K Indoor airflow and pollutant transport
%K Cfd modeling
%K Contamination control
%K Downdraft table
%A Buvaneswari Jayaraman
%A Astrid H Kristoffersen
%A Elizabeth U Finlayson
%A Ashok J Gadgil
%B Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
%D 2006
%G eng
%P 583-591
%T CFD Investigation of Room Ventilation for Improved Operation of a Downdraft Table: Novel Concepts
%V 3
%1 <p>3</p>
%X <p>We report a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) study of containment of airborne hazardous materials in a ventilated room containing a downdraft table. Specifically, we investigate the containment of hazardous airborne material obtainable under a range of ventilation configurations. The desirable ventilation configuration should ensure excellent containment of the hazardous material released from the workspace above the downdraft table. However, increased airflow raises operation costs, so the airflow should be as low as feasible without compromising containment. The airflow is modeled using Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes equations with a high Reynolds number k-epsilon turbulence model. CFD predictions are examined for several ventilation configurations. Based on this study, we find that substantial improvements in containment are possible concurrent with reduction in airflow, compared to the existing design of ventilation configuration.</p>