Numerical Investigation of using FDCU on Temperature Distribution in Non-Unidirectional Cleanrooms

Abstract

Cleanrooms are used in a lot of industrial applications, one of which is the field of electronic industries. Manufacturing process tools that equip the cleanroom and are used in this field dissipate a lot of heat in all room areas. This work presents a 3D numerical simulation for a recently published experimental work that proposes an innovative fan dry coil unit (FDCU) return air system. This system consists of ceiling supply fan filter units and ceiling return fan coils. Throughout the research, a comparison of temperature distribution between the FDCU return air system and the traditional wall return air system is presented. Moreover, the effect of changing the FDCU location on the cleanroom ceiling is investigated. To validate the numerical simulation results, a direct comparison is performed with the experiment data, and the numerical model shows good agreement. The results show that FDCU ARR-3 is the best arrangement compared to other models, namely wall-return, ARR-1, and ARR-2. The AVG local air temperature index Θ through the cleanroom was reduced by 77% compared to wall return and 33% compared to ARR-1. Moreover, the AVG local air temperature index Θ above the process tool was reduced by 28% compared to a wall return and 23% compared to ARR-1.