Electronic nose sensing chamber design for confined space atmospheric monitoring

Confined space is an enclosed area with limited space to perform work such as repairs and maintenance activity. Confined space accident is related to the atmospheric hazards. The most critical atmospheric hazards are oxygen atmosphere, explosive atmosphere and toxic atmosphere. The existing method used to monitor the hazardous volatile compound is using single instrument for atmospheric testing during pre-entry activities. The hazardous volatile compound can be monitored using the integration of Electronic Nose (e-nose) and mobile robot. This work proposed the development of sensing chamber of the e-nose. The sensing chamber is to accommodate atmosphere sample to the sensors. The design is effective to facilitate good sensors response. The parameters used to determine the designed are chamber structure, material, suitable flow rate and sensors selection. Three Dimensional-Computational Fluid Dynamic (3D-CFD) flow express simulation in SolidWork software was used to analyse for optimum sample flow inside the sensing chamber. Two types of chamber, series and parallel were simulated to analyse for the best possible design. The analysis was based on the iteration number that the design produced during the simulation. The parallel design was selected because it is capable to produced higher iteration number compared to series.