Effect of humidity on the filter pressure drop

Technical Report · Wed Feb 01 04:00:00 EST 1995

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/95649· OSTI ID:95649

Vendel, J.; Letourneau, P. ^[1]

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1. Institut de Protection et de Surete Nucleaire, Gif-sur-Yvette (France)

The effects of humidity on the filter pressure drop have been reported in some previous studies in which it is difficult to draw definite conclusions. These studies show contradictory effects of humidity on the pressure drop probably due to differences in the hygroscopicity of the test aerosols. The objective of this paper is to present experimental results on the evolution of the filter pressure drop versus mass loading, for different test aerosols and relative humidities. Present results are compared to those found in various publication. An experimental device has been designed to measure filter pressure drop as the function of the areal density for relative humidity varying in the range of 9 % to 85 %. Experiments have been conducted with hygroscopic: (CsOH) and nonhygroscopic aerosols (TiO{sub 2}). Cesium hydroxyde (CsOH) of size of 2 {mu} M AMMD has been generated by an ultrasonic generator and the 0.7 {mu}m AMMD titanium oxyde has been dispersed by a {open_quotes}turn-table{close_quotes} generator. As it is noted in the BISWAS`publication [3], present results show, in the case of nonhygroscopic aerosols, a linear relationship of pressure drop to mass loading. For hygroscopic aerosols two cases must be considered: for relative humidity below the deliquescent point of the aerosol, the relationship of pressure drop to mass loading remains linear; above the deliquescent point, the results show a sudden increase in the pressure drop and the mass capacity of the filter is drastically reduced.

• Research Organization: USDOE Assistant Secretary for Environment, Safety, and Health, Washington, DC (United States). Office of Environmental Guidance; Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC (United States). Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research; International Society of Nuclear Air Treatment Technologies, Inc., Batavia, OH (United States); Harvard Univ., Boston, MA (United States). Harvard Air Cleaning Lab.
• OSTI ID: 95649
• Report Number(s): NUREG/CP--0141; CONF-940738--; ON: TI95007828
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
AIR FILTERS
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
HUMIDITY
NUCLEAR FACILITIES
PRESSURE DROP
TESTING