Design and Performance Test of a Lab-Made Single-Stage Low-Pressure Impactor for Morphology Analysis of Diesel Exhaust Particles

A serial method is described for estimating the particle effective density and dynamic shape factor of particles, i.e., diesel exhaust particles (DEPs). For this purpose, we designed a single stage low-pressure impactor with a cutoff diameter of 130 nm. The collection efficiency curve of the impactor was obtained using mobility-classified sodium chloride (NaCl) particles as a function of the mobility diameter. Then by converting the mobility diameter of the NaCl particle into the aerodynamic equivalent diameter, the efficiency curve can be expressed as a function of the aerodynamic diameter. We also obtained the efficiency curve numerically by using a commercial computational fluid dynamics software package. After confirming the design and performance of the impactor (experimentally 135 nm and numerically 137 nm of cutoff diameter), we measured the currents carried by mobility-classified DEPs downstream and upstream of the impactor so that the collection efficiency value for DEP could be obtained at each mobility diameter of DEPs. By making this value equal to that of the efficiency curve, the relationship between the mobility diameter of DEPs and the aerodynamic diameter was obtained; this enabled us to determine the effective density and dynamic shape factor of DEPs. The effective density decreased from 1.06 to 0.51 g/cm³ and the dynamic shape factor increased from 1.28 to 1.64 as the particle size increased from 60 to 105 nm, regardless of the engine type or operating conditions.

Copyright 2015 American Association for Aerosol Research