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

Journal Article · Fri Apr 01 04:00:00 EST 2005 · Journal of Occupational and EnvironmentalHygiene

OSTI ID:908163

Kristoffersen, Astrid H; Jayaraman, Buvaneswari; Finlayson, Elizabeth U; Gadgil, Ashok J

We report a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) study of containment of airborne hazardous materials in a ventilated room containing a downdraft table. Specifically, we investigated 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 with the existing design of ventilation configuration.

• Research Organization: Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley NationalLaboratory, Berkeley, CA (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; NorwegianResearch Council. Strategic Institute Program. Norwegian BuildingResearch Institute. Project 133692/420, US-Norway Fulbright Foundationfor Educational Exchange
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-05CH11231
• OSTI ID: 908163
• Report Number(s): LBNL--57385
• Journal Information: Journal of Occupational and EnvironmentalHygiene, Journal Name: Journal of Occupational and EnvironmentalHygiene Journal Issue: 11 Vol. 3
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
FLUIDS
HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
SIMULATION
TURBULENCE
VENTILATION