On the use of computational fluid dynamics in the prediction and control of exposure to airborne contaminants—an illustration using spray painting

Abstract

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is employed to simulate breathing-zone concentration for a simple representation of spray painting a flat plate in a cross-flow ventilated booth. The results demonstrate the capability of CFD to track correctly changes in breathing-zone concentration associated with work practices shown previously to be significant in determining exposure. Empirical data, and models verified through field studies, are used to examine the predictive capability of these simulations and to identify important issues in the conduct of such comparisons. A commercially available CFD package is used to solve a three-dimensional turbulent flow problem for the velocity field, and to subsequently generate particle trajectories for polydisperse aerosols. An in-house algorithm is developed to convert the trajectory data to breathing-zone concentrations, transfer efficiencies and aerosol size distributions. The mesh size, time step, duration of the simulation, and number of particles per size interval are all important variables in achieving convergent results.