Particulate Matter Sample Deposit Geometry and Effective Filter Face Velocities

Abstract

Aerosol filter face velocities can be underestimated when the sample deposit area does not cover the entire face of the filter. In many aerosol samplers, Teflon filters are backed with a metal support screen. In these samplers, air flows through the filter only in the small area upstream of each hole in the screen, resulting in a sample deposit that is an array of tiny dots that mimics the array of holes. Thus, the filter deposit area is smaller than the total filter area and the effective face velocity is greater than that calculated from the sample deposit envelope. The Inter-agency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments (IMPROVE) network has used filter holders with two different screen hole arrays. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Chemical Speciation Network (CSN) and the Federal Reference Method samplers also use a metal support screen, but with much smaller screen holes than IMPROVE. These networks also use larger filters and lower flow rates than those used in IMPROVE. Filter face velocities for all of these networks that are calculated using the actual deposit array area range from 1.6 to 3.5 times larger than those calculated incorrectly using the entire sample deposit envelope.