Background and Objective: Cleanroom is a tightly enclosed environment where airborne particles are under control and is a necessary environment in pharmaceutical industries to produce quality products. Hence, we sought to assess and simulate particle dispersion and track particles in a cleanroom by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method in a pharmaceutical industry.
Materials and Methods: This experimental study was conducted in 2015 in a pharmaceutical industry. We evaluated particle concentration and number in the cleanroom according to ISO 14644- 3 standard. In addition, air flow pattern and particle dispersion in the cleanroom with cleanliness class of C was simulated based on CFD.
Results: The results showed that the path of particle movement and distribution and dispersion of particles in the cleanroom are completely dependent on flow shape and the pattern of air flow in the cleanroom. Furthermore, the simulation results showed that wall return had efficiency of higher than 70% for particle sizes of 0.5 and 5 microns.
Conclusion: Equipment and tools existing in the cleanroom affect the air flow pattern, and in turn, particle removal efficiency. Moreover, particle dispersion simulation in the cleanroom illustrated that air flow pattern exerts the highest impact on particle removal in cleanrooms.