Effect of charge and aerodynamic properties of particles on electrified fabric filtration

An electrical-single particle aerodynamic relaxation time (E-SPART) analyzer employs a laser Doppler velocimeter for measuring motion of charged particles in an applied oscillatory electric field in order to simultaneously measure the aerodynamic diameter and electrostatic charge on a single particle. A modification has been made to incorporate both acoustic excitation and a dc electric field for simultaneous measurement of the aerodynamic diameter and electrical charge of particles so that measurement of particle size is possible even for uncharged particles. Other modifications include use of a frequency counting technique for measuring the drift velocity of the particle, thereby determining the particle charge, use of a Millikan apparatus only for calibrating electrical charge above q = 4, and optimization of the operation of the aerosol generator and an electrostatic charger for calibration. The analyzer optics are being modified for determining particle size down to 0.1 microns in diameter. Experimental data on particle size and charge measurement obtained after stabilizing the operating temperature of the phase locked loop demodulator are presented.