Tyler J. Johnson

Mass–Mobility Measurements Using a Centrifugal Particle Mass Analyzer and Differential Mobility Spectrometer

Mass–mobility measurements using a centrifugal particle mass analyzer (CPMA) and differential mobility spectrometer (DMS) are demonstrated. The CPMA, which classifies an aerosol by mass-to-charge ratio, is used upstream of a DMS, which measures the mobility size distribution of the mass-classified particles in real-time. This system allows for mass–mobility measurements to be made on transient sources at one particle mass or an entire effective density distribution for steady state sources in minutes. Since the CPMA classifies particles by mass-to-charge ratio and multiply charged particles are present, particles of several different masses will be measured by the DMS. Therefore, a correction scheme is required to make accurate measurements. To validate this measurement scheme, two different CPMA-DMS systems were used to measure the known density of di(2ethylhexyl) sebacate (DEHS). The first system consisted of a CPMA and standard DMS500 (Cambustion). This system measured an average effective density of 1027 kg/m3 or within 12.6% of the accepted value with an estimated uncertainty of 30.1% (with 95% confidence). The second system consisted of a CPMA and modified DMS. The modified DMS was a DMS500 with the corona charger disabled and sample and sheath flow rates lowered, decreasing the uncertainty in the mobility measurement. This system measured an average effective density of 964 kg/m3 or within 5.7% of the accepted value with an uncertainty of 9.5–10.4% depending on particle mobility size. Finally, it was determined that multiple-charge correction and size calibration were required, with each correction causing a maximum change in measured effective density greater than 10%. Copyright 2013 American Association for Aerosol Research

Effective density and mass-mobility exponent of aircraft turbine particulate matter

A centrifugal particle mass analyzer and a modified differential mobility spectrometer were used to measure the mass and mobility of particulate matter emitted by CFM56-5B4/2P, CFM56-7B26/3, and PW4000-100 gas turbine engine sources. The mass-mobility exponent of the particulate matter from the CFM56-5B4/2P engine ranged from 2.68 to 2.82, whereas the effective particle densities varied from 600 to 1250  kg/m3, depending on the static engine thrust and sampling methodology used. The effective particle densities from the CFM56-7B26/3 and PW4000-100 engines also fell within this range. The sample was conditioned with or without a catalytic stripper and with or without dilution, which caused the effective density to change, indicating the presence of condensed semivolatile material on the particles. Variability of the determined effective densities across different engine thrusts, based on the scattering about the line of best fit, was lowest for the diluted samples and highest for the undiluted sample without a catalytic stripper. This variability indicates that the relative amount of semivolatile material produced was engine thrust dependent. It was found that the nonvolatile particulate matter, effective particle density (in kilograms per cubic meter) of the CFM56-5B4/2P engine at relative thrusts below 30% could be approximated using the particle mobility diameter (dme in meters) with 11.92d(2.76−3)me.

Particle Emission Characteristics of a Gas Turbine with a Double Annular Combustor

The total climate, air quality, and health impact of aircraft black carbon (BC) emissions depend on quantity (mass and number concentration) as well as morphology (fractal dimension and surface area) of emitted BC aggregates. This study examines multiple BC emission metrics from a gas turbine with a double annular combustor, CFM56-5B4-2P. As a part of the SAMPLE III.2 campaign, concurrent measurements of particle mobility, particle mass, particle number concentration, and mass concentration, as well as collection of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) samples, allowed for characterization of the BC emissions. Mass- and number-based emission indices were strongly influenced by thrust setting during pilot combustion and ranged from <1 to 208 mg/kg-fuel and 3 ×× 1012 to 3 ×× 1016 particles/kg-fuel, respectively. Mobility measurements indicated that mean diameters ranged from 7 to 44 nm with a strong dependence on thrust during pilot-only combustion. Using aggregation and sintering theory with empirical effective density relationships, a power-law relationship between primary particle diameter and mobility diameter is presented. Mean primary particle diameter ranged from 6 to 19 nm; however, laser-induced incandescence (LII) and mass-mobility-calculated primary particle diameters demonstrated opposite trends with thrust setting. Similarly, mass-mobility-calculated aggregate mass specific surface area and LII-measured surface area were not in agreement, indicating both methods need further development and validation before use as quantitative indicators of primary particle diameter and mass-specific surface area. Copyright 2015 American Association for Aerosol Research

Demonstration of the CPMA-Electrometer System for Calibrating Black Carbon Particulate Mass Instruments

In an effort to improve regulations for particulate emissions from aircraft engines, the Aircraft Exhaust Emissions Measurement Committee, SAE E-31, is investigating instruments to measure black carbon mass concentration in real time. The current candidates are a laser-induced incandescence instrument (LII 300) and a photo-acoustic Micro-Soot Sensor (MSS). However, both of these instruments use indirect techniques, measuring parameters other than the actual mass of particulate in the exhaust, and therefore require calibration. Previously, it has been shown that a centrifugal particle mass analyzer (CPMA) can be used in conjunction with an aerosol electrometer to traceably generate an aerosol with known mass concentration. This system can be used to rapidly calibrate particle mass instruments (on the order of minutes), without the time-consuming process of filter sampling, which is often used for calibration and prone to sampling artifacts. Here, we demonstrate the feasibility of the CPMA-electrometer system for calibrating two LII 300 instruments and two MSS instruments, which were calibrated to the NIOSH 5040 standard. The correlations between the CPMA-electrometer system and the challenge instrument were highly linear for both the LII and the MSS, and agreed well with the previous calibration. All four instruments were found to correlate with the CPMA-electrometer system with R2 values of 0.993 to 0.999. The standard uncertainty in the CPMA-electrometer system averaged 4.3% and was as low as 2.6% for some measurements. With a simple improvement to the aerosol electrometer, we estimate this average uncertainty would be less than 3%. This lower uncertainty and much higher speed of measurement support the use of the CPMA-electrometer system as a mass measurement calibration method for black carbon instruments. Copyright 2015 American Association for Aerosol Research

Measuring aerosol size distributions with the aerodynamic aerosol classifier

ABSTRACT The Aerodynamic Aerosol Classifier (AAC) is a novel instrument that selects aerosol particles based on their relaxation time or aerodynamic diameter. Additional theory and characterization is required to allow the AAC to accurately measure an aerosol’s aerodynamic size distribution by stepping while connected to a particle counter (such as a Condensation Particle Counter, CPC). To achieve this goal, this study characterized the AAC transfer function (from 32 nm to 3 μm) using tandem AACs and comparing the experimental results to the theoretical tandem deconvolution. These results show that the AAC transmission efficiency is 2.6–5.1 times higher than a combined Krypton-85 radioactive neutralizer and Differential Mobility Analyzer (DMA), as the AAC classifies particles independent of their charge state. However, the AAC transfer function is 1.3–1.9 times broader than predicted by theory. Using this characterized transfer function, the theory to measure an aerosol’s aerodynamic size distribution using an AAC and particle counter was developed. The transfer function characterization and stepping deconvolution were validated by comparing the size distribution measured with an AAC-CPC system against parallel measurements taken with a Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer (SMPS), CPC, and Electrical Low Pressure Impactor (ELPI). The effects of changing AAC classifier conditions on the particle selected were also investigated and found to be small (<1.5%) within its operating range. Copyright

Steady-state mass-mobility measurements of cigarette smoke using a CPMA

Tobacco smoke is a dynamic formation of gaseous and particulate material. The density of particulate phase can change due to evaporation condensation and alter its mass and mobility. Therefore these aerosol characteristics are important for modelling lung deposition or smoke particle transport in air. The mass and mobility of cigarette smoke particles was measured using a Centrifugal Particle Mass Analyzer (CPMA) and Differential Mobility Analyzer (DMA). The experimental setup, shown in Figure 1, placed a DMA and Condensation Particle Counter (CPC) upstream of a CPMA. The DMA selected the particles based on electrical mobility, while the upstream CPC accounted for the particle concentration decreasing in the bag over time. The CPMA then further classified the particles by mass-to-charge ratio. By stepping the CPMA through the particle mass range and counting the number of classified particles with the downstream CPC the mass-classified concentration peak was determined for the set DMA mobility size.