Dispersion of gas pollutant in a fan-filter-unit (FFU) cleanroom

Numerical simulation and experimental measurement of flow and concentration fields in a working fan-filter-unit (FFU) cleanroom have been conducted in this study. The purpose of the study is to find out the unsteady concentration distribution of a leaking gas pollutant. The standard K–ε model was used for the simulation of the flow field. To obtain the gas concentration field, SF6 gas with a certain concentration was released as a simulated leaking source from a valve manifold box (VMB) for 5 or 10 min, respectively. Three Fourier transform infrared spectrometers (FTIRs) were simultaneously used to measure the spatial and temporal distributions of SF6 concentrations. The measured data were then compared with the numerical results and the agreement is seen to be quite good. From the numerical results, the pollutant hot spots, peak pollutant concentration at the end of leaking, and time taken for the concentration to reduce to near background level are obtained.