Simulation of design by using CFD for the ventilation system of a portable cleanroom chamber

The air washer is a hybrid appliance combining air purifier and a humidifier. Air washer removes symptom-triggering allergens and pollutants from the air while adding therapeutic moisture. This industry-academia collaborative project designs a ventilation system for a portable air chamber that effectively draws in the clean air from an air washer, circulates fresh air and exhaust stale air through the outlet vent. Two ventilation system were developed based on impinging jet and underfloor air distribution technologies. The design models underwent computational fluid dynamics simulations to determine the optimal design. The key elements used to assess the effectiveness of the chamber design were human comfort level, including airflow velocity, skin temperature acceptability and chamber temperature and pressure differentials. The ANSYS results revealed that the impinging jet system has better overall performance than underfloor air distribution system. The impinging jet system achieved an air velocity of 1.25 m/s, a mean human skin temperature of 30°C, a temperature stratification of 2°C/m. The chamber temperature is 20.5°C and chamber differential pressure within the range of 2 Pa to 3.75 Pa. The proposed impinging jet design has fulfilled both the design and performance requirements, making it an effective ventilation chamber. The portable air cleanrooms, in general, are relatively compact and portable enclosures designed to provide a controlled environment with a low level of airborne particles and other contaminants. The proposed systems can be used in various industries such as pharmaceuticals, electronics, biotechnology, and more.