GUIDE TO CALCULATING TRANSPORT EFFICIENCY OF AEROSOLS IN OCCUPATIONAL AIR SAMPLING SYSTEMS

Abstract

This report will present hand calculations for transport efficiency based on aspiration efficiency and particle deposition losses. Because the hand calculations become long and tedious, especially for lognormal distributions of aerosols, an R script (R 2011) will be provided for each element examined. Calculations are provided for the most common elements in a remote air sampling system, including a thin-walled probe in ambient air, straight tubing, bends and a sample housing. One popular alternative approach would be to put such calculations in a spreadsheet, a thorough version of which is shared by Paul Baron via the Aerocalc spreadsheet (Baron 2012). To provide greater transparency and to avoid common spreadsheet vulnerabilities to errors (Burns 2012), this report uses R. The particle size is based on the concept of activity median aerodynamic diameter (AMAD). The AMAD is a particle size in an aerosol where fifty percent of the activity in the aerosol is associated with particles of aerodynamic diameter greater than the AMAD. This concept allows for the simplification of transport efficiency calculations where all particles are treated as spheres with the density of water (1g cm-3). In reality, particle densities depend on the actual material involved. Particle geometries can be verymore » complicated. Dynamic shape factors are provided by Hinds (Hinds 1999). Some example factors are: 1.00 for a sphere, 1.08 for a cube, 1.68 for a long cylinder (10 times as long as it is wide), 1.05 to 1.11 for bituminous coal, 1.57 for sand and 1.88 for talc. Revision 1 is made to correct an error in the original version of this report. The particle distributions are based on activity weighting of particles rather than based on the number of particles of each size. Therefore, the mass correction made in the original version is removed from the text and the calculations. Results affected by the change are updated.« less