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Title: Evaluating the use of PAO (4 cSt polyalphaoelfin) oil instead of DOP (di-octyl phthalate) oil for measuring the aerosol capture of nuclear canister filters

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1143989· OSTI ID:1143989
 [1]
  1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

This document details the distinction between using PAO (4 cSt polyalphaoelfin) oil instead of DOP (di-octyl phthalate) oil for measuring the aerosol capture of filters. This document is developed to justify the use of PAO rather than DOP for evaluating the performance of filters in the SAVY 4000 and Hagan containers. The design criteria (Anderson et al, 2012) for purchasing SAVY 4000 containers and the Safety Analysis Report for the SAVY 4000 Container Series specified that the filter must “capture greater than 99.97% of 0.45 μm mean diameter dioctyl phthalate (DOP) aerosol at the rated flow with a DOP concentration of 65±15 micrograms per liter.”This corresponds to a leakage percent of 0.03% (3.0x10-2). The density of DOP oil is 985 kg/m3 and the density of PAO oil is 819 kg/m3. ATI Test Inc measured the mass mean diameter of aerosol distributions produced by a single Laskin type III-A nozzle operating at a 20 psig air pressure as 0.563 μm for DOP oil and 0.549 μm for PAO oil. (See Appendix A.) For both types of oil in this document, the single fiber method calculated the leakage percent to be 4.4x10-5 for DOP oil and 4.7x10-5 for PAO oil. Although the percent error between these two quantities is 7.7%, these calculated leakage percent values are more than two orders of magnitude less than the criterion specified in the SAVY canister SAR. As a point of reference, the photometer used to measure the SAVY canister filter performance cannot resolve values for the leakage percent below 1.0x10-5. Additionally, over a range of particle sizes from 0.01 μm to 3.0 μm, there was less than 4.0x10-5 error between the calculated filter efficiency for the two types of oil at any particular particle size diameter. In conclusion, the difference between using DOP and PAO for testing SAVY canister filters is of inconsequential concern.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
DOE Contract Number:
AC52-06NA25396
OSTI ID:
1143989
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-14-25489
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English