An air curtain is used to ensure an adequate separation between two compartments that is aimed to restrict, a clean one and a contaminated one. The air curtain performance is improved with the use of an air extraction from the “contaminated” compartment. The aerodynamic sealing of an optimized air curtain is assessed regarding particulate matter. The evaluation using visual assessment of the aerodynamic sealing using a cold smoke source is validated against PM 10 detection.

It is shown that the air curtain presents a good aerodynamic sealing for the particulate of PM10 and PM2.5 classes and that the visual assessment method can lead to similar results. An equation was obtained with a view to be used to predict the level of aerodynamic sealing of the air curtain when the exhaust rate becomes too low. Another equation was obtained for predicting the average velocity through the door protected by the air curtain required to obtain an aerodynamic sealing, as a function of the jet parameters (nozzle average velocity and thickness). These test results prove that the air curtain, complemented with an air exhaust from the “contaminated compartment”, is suitable to provide an acceptable aerodynamic sealing for the particulate matter.

Practical application: The findings of this research are applicable when it is necessary to retain the contamination due to particulate matter using a soft boundary, as air plane jets. This is applicable to medical care centres to reduce the possibility of contamination due to bacteria between different compartments or in pharmaceutical process units to avoid cross contamination among them.

气幕用于确保两个隔间之间的足够分隔，旨在限制一个干净的隔间和一个被污染的隔间。通过使用从“受污染的”隔室中抽出空气，可以提高气帘性能。针对颗粒物评估了优化的气幕的空气动力学密封性。通过视觉评估使用冷烟源对空气动力密封进行评估，可针对PM 10检测进行验证。

结果表明，空气幕对PM10和PM2.5类颗粒具有良好的空气动力学密封性，并且视觉评估方法可以得出类似的结果。获得了一个方程，其目的是用来预测当排气速率变得太低时气幕的空气动力学密封程度。获得了另一个方程式，用于预测通过空气幕保护的，通过门以获得空气动力学密封所需的平均速度，该平均速度是射流参数（喷嘴平均速度和厚度）的函数。这些测试结果证明，气帘与“污染室”的排气相配合，适用于为颗粒物提供可接受的空气动力学密封。

实际应用：当需要使用软边界（例如飞机喷气机）保留由于颗粒物引起的污染时，可以应用本研究的结果。这适用于医疗中心，以减少由于细菌在不同隔间之间或在制药工艺单元中造成污染的可能性，以避免它们之间的交叉污染。