Flow measurements in pharmaceutical isolators

Isolators for the pharmaceutical industry (also known as gloveboxes) provide a physical barrier between a clean room and the environment. These devices enable to maintain sterility of a drug, but also protect the workers from potentially harmful substances.
The aerodynamic flow inside an isolator is often optimized using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). These simulations need to be validated with experiments. We performed validation measurements in several areas and different types of isolators using particle image velocimetry (PIV). The results enable the customer to optimize simulation parameters.