High-Volume dichotomous virtual impactor for the fractionation and collection of particles according to aerodynamic size

Abstract

A prototype dichotomous virtual impactor (DVI) using a single acceleration nozzle, operating at approximately 500 1/min, and having an aerodynamic particle outpoint diameter of about 2–3 μm has been constructed and tested. Under these conditions the flow through the acceleration nozzle is calculated to be turbulent. This sampler was calibrated with a monodisperse aerosol, and the measured particle size-dependent collection efficiencies demonstrate that the sampler size fractionates atmospheric particulate matter as efficiently as the low-volume dichotomous virtual impactors. Analysis of test data indicates that the high-volume sampler can be described by classical impaction theory. These data also indicate that over the range of Reynolds numbers from 24,000 to 81,000 there is little, if any, dependence of inferred acceleration nozzle turbulence on the performance characteristics of the sampling system. A comparison of the concentration of atmospheric particulate matter, sulfate, and calcium on the fine filter samples collected with colocated high- and low-volume virtual impactors also shows that the two samplers are operating with similar performance characteristics. Additionally, the high-volume DVI collects at least 10–30 times the mass of particulate matter that the presently available virtual impactors collect and thus allows one to obtain improved precision in the measurement of those airborne species that are near the minimum detectable level of current analytical methods. © 1983 Elsevier Science Publishing Co., Inc.