Effective density of airborne particles in a railway tunnel from field measurements of mobility and aerodynamic size distributions

Abstract

The objective of this study is to investigate the particle effective density of aerosol measurements in a railway tunnel environment. Effective density can serve as a parameter when comparing and calibrating different aerosol measurements. It can also be used as a proxy parameter reflecting the source of particles. Effective density was determined using two different methods. Method one defined it by the ratio of mass concentration to apparent volume size distribution. Method two relied on a comparison of aerodynamic and mobility diameter size distribution measurements. The aerodynamic size range for method one was 0.006–10 µm, and for method two, it was 10–660 nm. Using the first method, a diurnal average value of about 1.87 g/cm3 was observed for the measurements with tapered element oscillating microbalance (TEOM) in tandem with aerodynamic particle sizer + scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS), and 1.2 g/cm3 for the combination of TEOM with electrical low pressure impactor plus (ELPI+) in the presence of traffic. With method two, the effective density was 1.45 g/cm3 estimated from the size distribution measurements with ELPI + and fast mobility particle sizer (FMPS), and 1.35 g/cm3 from ELPI + in tandem with SMPS. With both calculation methods, the effective density varied for conditions with and without traffic, indicating different sources of particles. The proportion of particles with small sizes (10–660 nm) had a significant effect on the value of the effective density when no traffic was operating. The responses of different instruments to the railway particle measurements were also compared. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.