Performance evaluation of mobile downflow booths for reducing airborne particles in the workplace
| Autor: | H. Amy Feng, John Kremer, Braden Hocker, Li-Ming Lo, Austin E. Steltz |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2017 |
| Předmět: |
Engineering
Breathing zone Airflow Lactose 010501 environmental sciences Ceiling (cloud) 01 natural sciences Article 03 medical and health sciences 0302 clinical medicine Occupational Exposure Humans Statistical analysis Particle Size Process engineering Workplace Occupational Health 0105 earth and related environmental sciences Waste management business.industry Public Health Environmental and Occupational Health Size change Particulates 030210 environmental & occupational health Ventilation Air Pollution Indoor Particulate Matter Particle size business Particle control |
| Zdroj: | J Occup Environ Hyg |
| ISSN: | 1545-9632 |
| Popis: | Compared to other common control measures, the downflow booth is a costly engineering control used to contain airborne dust or particles. The downflow booth provides unidirectional filtered airflow from the ceiling, entraining released particles away from the workers’ breathing zone, and delivers contained airflow to a lower level exhaust for removing particulates by filtering media. In this study, we designed and built a mobile downflow booth that is capable of quick assembly and easy size change to provide greater flexibility and particle control for various manufacturing processes or tasks. An experimental study was conducted to thoroughly evaluate the control performance of downflow booths used for removing airborne particles generated by the transfer of powdered lactose between two containers. Statistical analysis compared particle reduction ratios obtained from various test conditions including booth size (short, regular, or extended), supply air velocity (0.41 and 0.51 m/s or 80 and 100 feet per minute, fpm), powder transfer location (near or far from the booth exhaust), and inclusion or exclusion of curtains at the booth entrance. Our study results show that only short-depth downflow booths failed to protect the worker performing powder transfer far from the booth exhausts. Statistical analysis shows that better control performance can be obtained with supply air velocity of 0.51 m/s (100 fpm) than with 0.41 m/s (80 fpm) and that use of curtains for downflow booths did not improve their control performance. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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