De-risk Cleanroom Design and Reduce Energy Costs with CFD

GMP COMPLIANCE

First-time-right design

Cleanroom airflow performance verification during the design phase using virtual cleanroom testing to identify contamination risks and prevent GMP non-compliance before construction.

ENERGY OPTIMIZATION

Lower operating cost

Use virtual recovery testing to determine the minimum compliant air change rate (ACR) and optimal HVAC layout, enabling significant reductions in cleanroom fan energy consumption.

CONTAMINATION CONTROL

Operational troubleshooting

Test real operating scenarios including operator positioning, equipment layouts, and process activities to prevent microbial contamination (CFU) and particle concentration deviations.

Test your cleanroom before you build it

CFD allows you to evaluate airflow, contamination risk, and recovery performance before costly design decisions are locked in.

Typical questions we help answer:

Will the cleanroom meet GMP airflow requirements?
Where can particles accumulate?
How do operators affect contamination risk?
What is the minimum compliant air change rate?
How much energy can we save?

Request a cleanroom CFD assessment

Situation

A pharmaceutical manufacturer operates multiple Grade B, C, and D cleanrooms with relatively high air change rates (ACR). While this conservative ventilation strategy ensured compliance, it resulted in significant fan energy consumption.

The engineering team suspected that the selected ACR values were overly conservative. However, reducing airflow posed a potential risk to GMP compliance, particularly regarding cleanroom recovery time requirements.

The key challenge was to determine whether air change rates could be reduced without compromising recovery performance and contamination control.

Implication

Overdesigned ventilation systems can significantly increase fan power consumption and operating costs over the lifetime of a facility.

Without reliable performance data, reducing ACR introduces uncertainty regarding particle removal efficiency and recovery time compliance, making it difficult for facility teams to implement energy optimization measures.

Solution

Aerotak applied virtual cleanroom testing using CFD to evaluate the performance of the existing cleanroom design.

The simulation model included the diffuser layout, equipment configuration, and operating conditions, enabling a realistic representation of the cleanroom environment.
The simulations evaluated performance against key GMP-related parameters, including:

Particle concentration behavior
Microbial contamination risk
Recovery time performance
Temperature distribution
Humidity control

Based on the baseline analysis, reduced airflow scenarios were simulated to assess the impact of lower ACR on cleanroom performance.

Impact

The client received a comprehensive performance assessment identifying both compliance risks and energy optimisation opportunities.

Virtual testing of airflow reduction scenarios enabled the engineering team to:

Identify minimum compliant air change rates
Maintain GMP recovery time performance
Achieve potential fan energy reduction of approximately 30% through ACR optimisation
Support data-driven ventilation optimisation decisions

This approach allowed the client to evaluate optimisation opportunities without operational disruption or compliance risk.