THERMAL COMFORT AND CONTAMINATION CONTROL ASSESSMENT OF A CLEANROOM

The particle-free conditions provided by cleanrooms are vital for much of modern manufacturingindustry. There has been a substantial increase in the working environment of cleanroom. Specialgarments are therefore dressed in all cleanrooms to control particles and microbiological contaminationdispersed from personnel in cleanrooms. However, more tightly-woven fabrics of cleanroom garmentswill result in thermal comfort dissatisfaction. In this study, field tests of a cleanroom have been carriedout in our newly constructed MEMS laboratory. The ASHRAE thermal comfort code was conducted toinvestigate thermal comfort of personnel based on field-testing data consequently. Furthermore, theeffects of clothing on thermal comfort and contamination control have been assessed comprehensively.The results from computer simulation and field tests indicated that there existed optimum compromisebetween the predicted mean vote and airborne particle counts under different cleanroom garments. Itwas also expected that contamination control could be achieved by proper cleanroom garments withoutthe sacrifice of thermal comfort.