Evaluation of a Perpendicular Inlet for Airborne Sampling of Interstitial Submicron Black-Carbon Aerosol

The majority of airborne aerosol measurements employ forward-facing inlets with near-isokinetic sampling; these inlets have known artifacts when sampling in clouds such that data taken in cloud must typically be discarded. Here we report first results from a perpendicular inlet for sampling interstitial submicron black-carbon (BC) containing aerosol. The inlet, consisting of a flat plate to stabilize flow prior to perpendicular sampling, was evaluated using a single particle soot photometer (SP2) aboard the NASA WB-57F aircraft during the Midlatitude Airborne Cirrus Properties Experiment (MACPEX) of 2011. The new inlet rejects large particles and is free of aerosol artifacts when sampling in ice clouds while allowing sampling of submicron BC-containing aerosol with the same unit efficiency as a validated isokinetic inlet, thus allowing for airborne sampling of interstitial BC aerosol.

Copyright 2013 American Association for Aerosol Research     

Design and Operation of a Pressure-Controlled Inlet for Airborne Sampling with an Aerodynamic Aerosol Lens

Two pressure-controlled inlets (PCI) have been designed and integrated into the Aerodyne Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (AMS) inlet system containing an aerodynamic aerosol lens system for use in airborne measurements. Laboratory experiments show that size calibration and mass flow rate into the AMS are not affected by changes in upstream pressure (P ₀ ) of the PCI as long as the pressure within the PCI chamber (P _PCI ) is controlled to values lower than P ₀ . Numerous experiments were conducted at different P _PCI , P ₀ , and AMS lens pressures (P _Lens ) to determine particle transmission efficiency into the AMS. Based on the results, optimum operating conditions were selected which allow for constant pressure sampling with close to 100% transmission efficiency of particles in the size range of ～ 100–700 nm vacuum aerodynamic diameter (d _va ) at altitudes up to ～ 6.5 km. Data from an airborne field study are presented for illustration.     

A New Aircraft Inlet for Sampling Interstitial Aerosol: Design Methodology,Modeling, and Wind Tunnel Tests

The design of a new aerosol sampler, called the blunt-body aerosol sampler (BASE), to sample interstitial particles inside clouds while avoiding the problem of cloud droplet shatter artifacts is introduced. The primary design feature of the inlet is a blunt body that houses an aerosol inlet toward its aft end. The housing is designed to be blunt enough to deflect large cloud particles traveling around the body while being streamlined enough to maintain an attached boundary layer under aircraft flow conditions. The attached flow requirement ensures that shatter particles formed from the impaction of cloud droplets on the blunt body are retained close to the surface of the body. A region of large particle shadow is, thus, created in the aft of the blunt-body housing, where an aerosol inlet can sample interstitial particles in the absence of cloud particles. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations are used to optimize the shape of the blunt body, and the final sampler design is predicted to sample particles smaller than 2 μm from the freestream while being uninfluenced by cloud droplet shatter particles of the same size. Wind tunnel tests were performed on a prototype model to confirm the attached nature of the boundary layer flow around the blunt body and to establish the size-dependent behavior of shatter particles in the vicinity of the housing. While the experiments provide initial validation of the interstitial inlet design concept, some discrepancies were observed between the wind tunnel tests and CFD predictions, suggesting a need for improvements in simulations, inlet design, and/or test methodology. Initial analyses of field data obtained from the first aircraft deployment of BASE confirm that sampling of shatter-free interstitial aerosol is possible with the inlet, but full performance characterization of BASE will require significant additional aircraft-based experiments under a range of cloud conditions.

Copyright 2013 American Association for Aerosol Research     

Calibration of the QCM Impactor for Stratospheric Sampling

The performance of the QCM impactor (Model 3000, California Measurements, Sierra Madre, CA) has been evaluated at inlet pressures of 59 and 88 Torr, corresponding to the conditions of stratospheric sampling aboard the U-2 aircraft. Impactor mass flow rates and stage operating pressures were measured as a function of inlet pressure. The collection efficiencies of monodisperse liquid oleic acid aerosols were measured for individual impactor stages by counting particle penetration with an optical particle counter. Modification of the optical counter for this low pressure application is described. Response of the assembled QCM to near-mono-disperse Apiezon grease aerosols was measured using the signal from the quartz crystal impaction substrates. Aerodynamic cutoff diameters as a function of inlet pressure agree with impaction theory for most stages. Good comparison is found between the response of the QCM microbalance impaction plates and the optical particle counter data. For solid particles the QCM collection is poor due to rebound of the particles off the uncoated surface.     

A Model for the Prediction of the Collection Efficiency Characteristics of a Small,Cylindrical Aerosol Sampling Cyclone

Velocity data from a previous study were nondimensionalized and used in conjunction with a computer program which solves the equations for particle trajectory to predict the collection efficiency for the cyclone. Results for the prediction of cutpoint at the same Reynolds number as that for which the velocities were measured, both for a large cyclone of 88.9 mm diameter and another geometrically similar at one half the scale, are excellent. The model predicts cutpoints of 10 μm and 5.1 μm for the large and small cyclone, respectively, while the actual cutpoints determined from aerosol tests were 9.9 μm and 5.2 μ m. The efficiency curve generated by the model was steeper (geometric standard deviation of 1.1) than the efficiency curve determined through the aerosol testing (geometric standard deviation of 1.4). A simplification of the Dirgo and Leith equation fitting Barth's design curve is suggested which provides a significantly better fit of the aerosol data (geometric standard deviation of 1.3). At 1.5N _{R Q}, where N _{R Q} = (4pg)/(πμD _c), the error in prediction of the cutpoint in the large cyclone is less than 8% while at 04N _{R Q} the error is less than 2%. Although results are good over a limited range of Reynolds numbers, the model is strictly applicable only for flows which are dynamically similar to those studied here.     

Very High Volume Aerosol Sampling with a Novel Drum Centrifuge

For chemical analysis of trace compounds, comparatively large amounts of dust have to be collected. If good time resolution is required, very high sampling flow rates are mandatory. The operating principle of the drum centrifuge built to cope with these requirements is based on particle deposition on the inner surface of a porous rotating drum. Due to the rotation, a pressure gradient draws the aerosol into the bore of the axis and from there radially outward through a number of holes into the drum. The aerosol then moves to the periphery of the double-walled drum, which consists of two 0.15-mm-thick metal sheets with 1-mm spacing. Each of these metal sheets is perforated by several rows of small slits resulting in porosity of 16%. The slits in the inner and outer sheet are displaced, so that the particles will be strongly deflected on their way out of the rotating drum. Under the combined action of centrifugal forces and strong streamline deflection in the displaced slits of the two thin-walled drums, the particles are deposited. Flow rate as a function of rpm and collection efficiency as a function of particle size were determined experimentally. For simplicity, only the flow field of two (nonrotating) displaced slits was mathematically analyzed. The resulting 2-D solution of the Navier-Stokes equation was used for deterministic limiting trajectory calculations in the case of large particles. Diffusional motion of small particles was allowed for by Monte Carlo trajectory calculation. The calculated deposition efficiencies agree satisfactorily with the experimental results. At 3000 rpm a flow rate of 1200 m³/hr and efficiencies of 91% for 2.1-μm particles, 75% for 0.6-μm particles, and 48% for 0.04-μm particles were obtained. For easy extraction of the collected particulate matter, the device is equipped with an ultrasonic cleaning bath.     

Aerosol Characteristics in a Subway Environment

This paper presents an attempt to characterize biological and nonbiological aerosols in a subway environment. This opportunity to study a subway station atmosphere was approached as a collaboration of different organizations within the Department of Defense (DoD) and a suite of instruments was assembled for real-time monitoring, sample collection, and subsequent sample analysis. Based on ultraviolet (UV) fluorescence, aerosols of a biological nature were found to comprise a small fraction of the total aerosols (typically <1%). The total number concentration of aerosols exhibits a diurnal cycle that depends on the station usage. Several bacterial species were identified using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis. The most common element in the aerosols is iron. Sodium chloride is also prevalent in the aerosol mass.     

PELTI: Measuring the Passing Efficiency of an Airborne Low Turbulence Aerosol Inlet

In an effort to improve the accuracy of airborne aerosol studies, we compared a new porous-diffuser low-turbulence inlet (LTI) with three other inlets on the NSF/NCAR C-130, using both dust and sea salt as test aerosols. Analysis of bulk filters behind the LTI and an external reference total aerosol sampler (TAS) found no significant differences, while both the NASA shrouded solid diffuser inlet (SD) and NCAR community aerosol inlet (CAI) passed smaller amounts. However, scanning electron microscopic analyses of particles behind the LTI and TAS confirmed the model prediction that the LTI porous diffuser (PD) enhanced 7 μm particle concentrations by about 60%. Aerodynamic particle size distributions behind the other inlets began to diverge from enhancement-corrected LTI values above 2 μm, with mass concentrations of larger particles lower by as much as a factor of ten behind the CAI and a factor of 2 behind the SD. We conclude that the corrected LTI distributions were closer to ambient values than those from either the CAI or the SD. Since tubing losses contributed the most uncertainty when deducing ambient supermicron size distributions from LTI data, minimizing them should be a high priority for future experiments. Measured transfer tubing losses were larger than model estimates, in part because of some complex pieces for which no suitable model exists. The LTI represents a significant advance in our ability to sample populations of large particles from aircraft. A necessary part of using an LTI is the calculation of and correction for large-particle enhancement using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) program. Although the solid diffuser inlet performed well under some conditions, its large-particle efficiency cannot be modeled, varies with humidity and particle morphology, and involves wall contact that has the potential to modify some particles.     

Investigation of Filter Bypass Leakage and a Test for Aerosol Sampling Cassettes

Plastic filter cassettes (37 and 25 mm), which are press fitted together to seal and hold a filter in place, are commonly used for sampling aerosols. Aerosol bypass leakage around the filter has been reported by several researchers and attempts have been made to test for leakage and to reduce the likelihood of leakage by improving cassette design. Under typical sampling conditions, there is often no indication to the user that leakage may have occurred. In the present study, a particle count leak test was developed that used a particle counter that measured the particle number concentration of ambient aerosol (primarily submicrometer particles) upstream and downstream of the filter cassette. The relationship between leak test results and particle loss from the filter depended on particle size and type in a complex fashion. The mechanisms of particle loss were investigated and the losses increased for particles above 2 w m and were much greater for solid and fume aerosols than for oil droplets. Although the test could not be used to predict particle mass loss during sampling, the test was a sensitive indicator of cassette bypass leakage and was used to establish compression pressures needed for proper assembly of these cassettes.     

Behavior of Alkali Metal Aerosol in a High-Temperature Porous Tube Sampling Probe

Two-component model aerosols consisting of KCl vapor and ultrafine K₂SO₄ particles were generated in the laboratory to study sample behavior in a high-temperature porous tube sampling probe. The conditions were set to represent those typically occurring at biomass-fired furnaces. Particle size distributions were measured from the diluted aerosol via several sampling parameters and the temperature and mixing conditions inside the diluting probe were characterized. The experimental findings were interpreted by one-dimensional aerosol dynamics modeling. Gaseous KCl was found to form very small KCl particles inside the diluter by homogeneous nucleation. In the cases where K₂SO₄ seed particles were introduced into the sample, part of the KCl vapor condensed on the seeds, while the remainder formed a clearly distinct nucleation mode due to the relatively high cooling rates in the probe. In the studied probe, mixing of sample and dilution gas was relatively fast, which was found to be favorable for KCl nucleation. The condensation behavior of KCl in the probe with simultaneous dilution and cooling was found to be clearly influenced by mixing, cooling, and surface area of the existing particles. The results show that in the porous tube diluter, different sampling parameters can be used either to enhance the appearance of nucleation mode, or to promote condensation of vapors on existing particles to minimize sample losses on walls. Furthermore, these results point to the possibility to design a high-temperature sampling system, which minimizes the artifacts caused by vapor condensation on existing fine particles during sampling.

Copyright 2012 American Association for Aerosol Research     

Heterogeneous Reactions of Chlorine Nitrate and Dinitrogen Pentoxide on Sulfuric Acid Surfaces Representative of Global Stratospheric Aerosol Particles

Increasing evidence from field measurements, modeling studies, and laboratory experiments suggests that heterogeneous reactions on stratospheric sulfate aerosol particles can change the partitioning in the nitrogen and chlorine families and thereby affect global ozone levels. In this study, a Knudsen cell flow reactor was used to measure the uptake of ClONO₂ and N₂O₅ by sulfuric acid solutions representative of background and volcanic stratospheric aerosol particles. The uptake coefficient (γ) of chlorine nitrate on 50–75 wt% H₂SO₄ at 223 K was found to be markedly dependent on the acid concentration, with γ ranging from about 1 × 10⁻² to 1 × 10⁻⁴. These results are in good agreement with literature reports and the data fit the expression log γ= 1.87 – 0.074 × (wt% H₂SO₄). This reaction will thus have its largest impact when stratospheric temperatures are low and sulfuric acid aerosols are most dilute. Uptake of N₂O₅ was studied on solutions with compositions in the range 58–96 wt% H₂SO₄ at temperatures from 193 to 303 K. N₂O₅ reacted readily on sulfuric acid surfaces with uptake coefficients of about 0.06. The uptake coefficient was found to be independent of the sulfuric acid concentration and the solution temperature over the ranges studied. These results suggest that the reaction of N₂O₅ with H₂O will occur readily on sulfuric acid aerosol particles for most stratospheric conditions.     

Effect of a Horizontal Inlet on the Collection Efficiency of a Rectangular-Slit-Nozzle Impactor

A horizontal inlet was employed to improve the collection efficiency of a rectangular-slit-nozzle impactor. A numerical and experimental study of the collection efficiency of rectangular-slit-nozzle impactors, with either typical inlets or horizontal inlets, was conducted. In the comparison of typical inlet impactors and horizontal-inlet impactors, parameters such as the nozzle width, impaction plate width, nozzle-to-plate distance, and aerosol flow rate were held constant, and only the inlet shape was changed. A parametric study was conducted to examine the effects of the horizontal inlet dimensions on the collection efficiency of rectangular-slit-nozzle impactors. It was found that a horizontal inlet could reduce the square root of the Stokes number corresponding to the cutoff size from 0.77 to 0.60, compared with a typical inlet.

Copyright 2014 American Association for Aerosol Research     

A Computational Fluid Dynamics Study of Particle Penetration through an Omni-Directional Aerosol Inlet

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was used to study aerosol penetration through the entrance section of a bell-shaped omni-directional ambient aerosol sampling inlet. The entrance section did not include either an insect screen or a large-particle pre-separator. Simulations of the flow field were carried out for wind speeds of 2, 8, and 24 km/h and a fixed exhaust flow rate of 100 L/min; and, particle tracking was performed for 2 to 20 μ m aerodynamic diameter particles. Penetration calculated from CFD simulations was in excellent agreement with experimental results from previous studies with the root mean square relative error between simulation and experimental data being 3.8%. CFD results showed that the most significant regional particle deposition occurred on the upwind side of a curved flow passage between two concentric axisymmetric shells of the inlet housing and that deposition at the leading edges of the shells and within the exhaust tube was far less significant. At a wind speed of 2 km/h, penetration was affected by gravitational settling, e.g., penetration of 20 μ m particles was 71.9% when gravity was included and 80.4% without gravity. At higher wind speeds gravity had little effect. An empirical equation was developed to relate aerosol penetration to a Stokes number, a gravitational settling parameter, and a velocity ratio. Good fits of the correlation curves to experimental data and numerical results were obtained.     

Use of Numerical Calculations to Simulate the Sampling Efficiency Performance of a Personal Aerosol Sampler

Numerical calculations were conducted to simulate air and particle behavior near and into the inlet of an aerosol sampler in order to determine sampling efficiency performance. This was done with the pre-verified commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software package, FLUENT (Fluent, Inc., Lebanon, NH, US). Air flow behavior was calculated for steady-state conditions approaching and flowing into 3D geometries of an aerosol sampler free in the air that was similar in dimension to two commercial samplers, namely the Gesamtstaubprobenahme sampler (GSP) and the conical inhalable sampler (CIS). Particle trajectories were calculated in a Lagrangian reference frame on the resulting velocity fields. Based on the particle trajectories, sampling efficiencies were calculated and compared to those reported in the literature for a CIS aerosol sampler. They were found to have similar overall trends for particle sizes up to 21 μ m. Using a correction factor, agreement was observed to be very good for smaller particles, but less so for larger particles.     

Effect of Inlet Diameter on the Performance of a Filtering Hydrocyclone Separator

An innovative hydrocyclone was designed, in which a conical filtering wall replaces the conical section, producing another liquid stream leaving the equipment, besides underflow and overflow streams. The influence of the inlet diameter of a filtering hydrocyclone was analyzed by an experimental and computational fluid dynamics study. Data from conventional hydrocyclones of the same configurations were also obtained. Under identical operating conditions and geometry, the filtering hydrocyclone presented a better performance than the conventional device. Under the experimental conditions evaluated, an about twofold increase in inlet diameter reduces the Euler number significantly.     

A Numerical Study of the Performance of an Aerosol Sampler with a Curved,Blunt, Multi-Orificed Inlet

The purpose of this study was to numerically simulate the performance of an aerosol sampler with a curved, blunt, multi-orificed inlet in order to understand the sampling characteristics of the first prototype of the button personal inhalable aerosol sampler ("button sampler"). Because the button sampler inlet design is too complicated to apply a three-dimensional model, an axisymmetric two-dimensional model was created to be similar in geometry and to simulate the major features of the airflow through the sampler when facing the wind. Particle trajectories were calculated in a variety of wind velocities and were categorized into 5 groups based on their interactions with the curved surface of the sampling plane. Empirical sampling efficiencies of the button sampler for 3 particle sizes were used to adjust the calculated sampling efficiencies in an attempt to improve the accuracy of the two-dimensional axisymmetric model in accounting for interactions between particles and the surface of the inlet of the button sampler. Sampling efficiencies for other particle sizes were then predicted. The results showed that sampling efficiency decreased with increasing particle size up to approximately 40 w m and then remained virtually unchanged at about 35% up to 100 w m. Although the efficiencies were lower than the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists' (ACGIH) inhalability curve for larger particles, the pattern of the predicted sampling efficiency was quite similar to the ACGIH inhalability curve. Sampling efficiencies for liquid aerosol particles larger than 15 w m were predicted to be noticeably lower than those for solid particles. The results also showed that the multi-orificed curved surface played an important role in establishing a pressure drop with desired flow alignment inside the sampler, thus greatly reducing the wind effect and significantly improving the uniformity of particle deposition on the filter. The less uniform deposition found at high wind velocity can be improved by increasing the sampling flow rate.     

Comparative Study of Pressure Reducers for Aerosol Sampling from High Purity Gases

A performance evaluation and comparative study has been conducted with six pressure-reducing devices suitable for particle sampling from high pressure gas systems. Pressure-reducing devices are used to reduce the gas pressure from that existing in the high-purity compressed gas system to ambient conditions for subsequent measurement of particulate contaminants by particle counters. Six pressure-reducing devices, including designs based on the orifice plate, orifice design with expansion cone, and capillary tube designs, have been evaluated experimentally to determine their particle penetration characteristics and contribution to background particle.

Studies showed that particle loss in pressure reducers depended upon the pressure-reducing geometry, gas pressure and particle size. Particle penetration through orifice type devices was found to be superior to that found for capillary tube type devices. The 50% penetration through orifice type pressure reducers was found to be at a particle diameter of approximately 3.0 μ while for the capillary tube designs at a particle diameter less than 1.0 μ. For the orifice-type pressure reducers the particle background concentration was less than 0.05 particles/ft³ (1.77 particles/m³). Significantly higher particle background levels were found for the capillary tube type devices which is believed to result from particle reentrainment from the capillary tube wall.     

进口导叶对离心风机预旋作用的探索

根据金川集团股份有限公司化工厂进口风机在实际应用中的探索与研究,论述了风机进口导叶在风机系统性能评价中的重要作用,同时对进口导叶正旋与反旋的原理及其对风机性能的影响进行了详细说明。     

Characteristics of Aerosol Charge Distribution by Surface-Discharge Microplasma Aerosol Charger (SMAC)

The surface discharge on a dielectric barrier induced by dc pulses was successfully utilized as a stable bipolar ion source for neutralizing submicron aerosol particles where the concentration of positive and negative ions could be adjusted independently (a surface-discharge microplasma aerosol charger: SMAC; Kwon et al., 2005 Kwon, S. B., Sakurai, H., Seto, T. and Kim, Y. J. 2005. Charge Neutralization of Submicron Aerosols Using Surface-Discharge Microplasma. J. Aerosol Sci., in press[CSA] [Google Scholar]). The aim of this study was to determine the charge distribution obtained by the SMAC, which has been qualitatively presented in our previous study, and to investigate the effect of unequal bipolar ion concentration on the charge distribution. For this purpose, we performed quantitative analysis of the charge distribution of monodisperse particles in the size range of 30–200 nm acquired by the SMAC and compared the charge distributions with calculated charge fractions obtained from the diffusion charging theory. The ion parameters were calculated by measuring the ion mobility of positive and negative ions and they were used to obtain the analytic solutions of charge distribution. The charge distributions obtained by the equal or unequal concentration of bipolar ions adjusted by the SMAC showed general agreement with the diffusion charging theory.     

A Differentially Pumped Particle Inlet for Sampling of Atmospheric Aerosols into a Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometer: Optical Characterization of the Particle Beam

Two methods of characterizing the particle beam generated with a differentially pumped particle inlet are presented. Both methods are based on optical scattering of a laser beam by the particle beam. The first method images a time integrated scatter signal from the entire particle beam onto a charge coupled device (CCD), and an Abel inversion is performed on the image data to arrive at the radial particle density distribution in the beam. The second method, based on counting individual (particle) scatter pulses, yields the radial particle density directly. Initial results of the performance of the particle inlet are reported for particles with diameters between 40 and 800 nm. Under optimal working conditions, particle beams were generated with a full angle divergence on the order of 1-2 mrad. The width, measured 285 mm downstream from the exit of the particle inlet, was 250mu m, half width at half maximum (HWHM).