Flow Characteristics of a Servco Fume Cupboard

Abstract

A fume cupboard is equipment used to carry out chemical reaction process in its working chamber. A suction fan takes air or gas from the working chamber and releases it outside. When the air or gas is flowing from the inlet to the outlet, some recirculation zones may be formed depending on the internal shape design of the fume cupboard. This recirculation zone may create back flow that can be the cause of leakage. Leakage happens when airborne contaminants escape through inlet of the fume cupboard to the user breathing zone and the surrounding air in the room. To have a good fume cupboard, the recirculation zone needs to be minimised. In this paper, the flow characteristic of a Servco fume cupboard will be presented as a result of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation using κ-ω turbulence model. The results are presented in terms of velocity components at different cross sections of the fume cupboard.