Evaluation of fast response aerosol mass monitors

Technical Report · Sun Jun 01 04:00:00 EDT 1980

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5214215· OSTI ID:5214215

Fairchild, C. I.; Tillery, M. I.; Ettinger, H. J.

Five commercially available mass monitors were evaluated against aerosols of coal dust, silica, fiber glass, welding fume, oil shale, polystyrene latex, dioctyl phthalate, and fluorescein dye. The instruments were two identical TSI Corporation respirable aerosol mass monitors (RAMM), model 3500, and one each of GCA Corporation respirable dust monitors (RDM), models 101, 201, and 301. The RDM-201 was a long-term sampler (sampling up to 8 h), whereas the other monitors employed sampling periods generally 2 min or less. Each mass monitor sampled from uniform aerosol concentrations ranging from <0.1 to >10 mg/m/sup 3/. The aerosols were also sampled by three membrane filters collecting 2, 5, and 20 to 37 L/min. Mass monitor readings were compared to gravimetric concentrations of samples between 1- to 10-min duration. Statistical techniques were applied to determine significant differences between gravimetric and mass monitor results. The RDM-201 mass monitor displayed zero mass concentration of 27 of 73 measurements and an accuracy of +-74% for 27 other measurements, when gravimetric information indicated mass concentrations ranging from 0.3 to 5 mg/m/sup 3/. Accuracy of the other monitors was better than +-25% of gravimetric concentration when four or more instrument readings were averaged; however, individual readings differed from gravimetric concentration as much as 300%. Particle size sensitivities of the monitors, indicated by the particle size of 50% measurement efficiencies, were 1.2- and 1.4-..mu..m aerodynamic diameter for the RDM-301 and -101, respectively, and <0.3 ..mu..m for the RAMMs. The RAMMs collected particles >6-..mu..m aerodynamic diameter with poor efficiency.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos Scientific Lab., NM (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-36
• OSTI ID: 5214215
• Report Number(s): LA-8220
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

500200* -- Environment
Atmospheric-- Chemicals Monitoring &amp; Transport-- (-1989)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
AEROSOL MONITORING
AEROSOLS
AIR POLLUTION MONITORS
AIR SAMPLERS
AROMATICS
BITUMINOUS MATERIALS
CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS
CARBOXYLIC ACID SALTS
CARBOXYLIC ACIDS
CHALCOGENIDES
COAL
COLLOIDS
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
DATA
DATA FORMS
DISPERSIONS
DUSTS
DYES
ENERGY SOURCES
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FIBERGLASS
FLUORESCEIN
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
GRAPHS
HYDROXY ACIDS
HYDROXY COMPOUNDS
INFORMATION
LABORATORY EQUIPMENT
MINERALS
MONITORING
NUMERICAL DATA
OIL SHALES
ORGANIC ACIDS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC POLYMERS
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PARTICLE SIZE
PERFORMANCE TESTING
PETROCHEMICALS
PETROLEUM PRODUCTS
PHENOLS
PHTHALATES
PLASTICS
POLYMERS
POLYOLEFINS
POLYPHENOLS
POLYSTYRENE
POLYVINYLS
SAMPLERS
SILICA
SILICON COMPOUNDS
SILICON OXIDES
SIZE
SOLS
TABLES
TESTING