Evaporation behavior of volatile particles on fibrous filter flushed with particle-free dry air

Abstract

Evaporation behavior of volatile particulate nitrates collected on a fibrous filter, challenged with particle-free air, is investigated experimentally and theoretically. Measured evaporation rates are compared with the results of a numerical model, which determines the total evaporation rate by integrating that for a single particle, taking into account the change with time of particle size and vapor saturation distributions inside the filter.The numerical model compares well with experimental results. In particular, it describes better the last period of evaporation than the existing model based on film evaporation. The measured evaporation rates in a region where the evaporation from individual particles becomes predominant decrease as the initial particle loading increases, probably because of an increasing influence of interaction between particles and fibers with increasing particle load.