Tracer gas evaluations of push-pull ventilation system performance.

A push-pull ventilation system is effective for hazardous material exhaustion. Although a push-pull ventilation system has advantages over a local exhaust hood, some laborious adjustments are required. The pertinence of the adjustments is uncertain because it is difficult to evaluate the performance of a push-pull ventilation system quantitatively. In this study, a measurement of the capture efficiency of a push-pull ventilation system was carried out by means of a tracer gas method. The capture efficiency decreased to 39.3-78.5% when blockage material, a dummy worker and a cross draft, were set in the ventilation zone, but the efficiency was 95.1-97.9% when the cross draft was stopped. The results suggest that the uniform flow of a push-pull ventilation system will detour a blockage and the performance of the system will not be reduced unless a cross draft disturbs the uniform flow.