Case Study: Air Science & Engineering, LLC achieves optimized fume‑capture hood design and $50K capital savings with ANSYS Airpak

Air Science & Engineering, LLC - Customer Case Study

Air Science & Engineering, LLC was hired to solve a metalworking client’s problem: fumes from a large torch cutting operation were escaping into adjacent work areas because an existing side‑draft hood was ineffective. The new hood needed to capture and contain fumes while minimizing exhaust flow, allow parts to be loaded by an overhead crane, and accommodate a high‑velocity push jet. Air Science & Engineering used ANSYS and the ANSYS Airpak CFD tool to assess and address the challenge.

Using ANSYS Airpak together with traditional industrial hygiene engineering, Air Science & Engineering developed and validated a baseline CFD model, optimized hood configurations, and specified a final design (including an 11,500 cfm exhaust rate and a secondary push jet for worst‑case conditions). The installed hood performed as predicted, capturing process fumes, avoiding prototype rework and delays, and delivering an estimated $50,000 in capital savings and $5,000 in annual operating cost savings. ANSYS modeling enabled the optimization and successful implementation.

Air Science & Engineering, LLC

Clyde J. Porter

Principal