In the healthcare and electronics industries, process contamination is a primary concern. They manufacture these sensitive products in clean rooms where the concentration of airborne particles is controlled to specified limits, such as BS EN ISO 14644-1. Even in controlled environments, particles are constantly being created and can settle on and contaminate surfaces and products.
Traditional cleanroom and hygienic zone design has relied on historic design rules and experience, with assessment and validation against ISO standards and other regulatory conditions only possible at advanced stages through smoke tests and sensors following mock-up or construction.
Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) enables air flow within clean environments to be simulated during both concept and detailed design, providing visualisation, insight and guidance into:
- Dead spots of flow / stagnant zone where particulates or bio-material may settle
- Air temperatures due to heat sources within the room
- How to reduce energy consumption and number of air changes required per hour
- Ventilation design – where to position diffusers and vents
- Ideal positioning of sensors
- Comparative flow distribution for smoke test validation
As a “virtual smoke test”, air flow modelling enables multiple design iterations to be performed before significant cost or time is incurred, such as evaluating alternative vent and diffuser arrangements.
Furthermore, it provides much more data to assist your design decisions than a smoke test can alone. Indeed, air flow modelling can even be a valuable tool during proposals to give you and your end users confidence in the concepts put forward.
If you are involved in proposing, designing or modifying cleanrooms and hygienic zones (within manufacturing facilities), we can help you either develop your own inhouse air flow modelling capabilities or support your engineering activies through our comprehensive simulation consulting services.
The rapid turnaround and precision of Wilde’s analysis allowed Kantor to avoid unnecessary costs as well as potential delays. We look forward to working with Wilde again on future projects.
Kantor Energy
The design of the ventilation system... presented a unique challenge to Kantor Energy. Due to the space limitations and requirement to install all combustion plant within a relatively small building, it was clear that a bespoke and specialist approach would be required. Wilde Analysis very quickly took up the challenge and produced a set of simulations that identified the optimal ventilation system design.
Kantor Energy