CFD Investigation of Room Ventilation for Improved Operation of a Downdraft Table: Novel Concepts

Publication Type
Journal Article
Authors
Abstract

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.

Journal
Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
Volume
3
Year of Publication
2006
Number
11
Pagination
583-591
Custom 1
<p>3</p>
Keywords
Organizations
Research Areas
Download citation