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Performance of Disposable Respirators
Author(s) -
Fardi Behzad,
Liu Benjamin Y. H.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
particle and particle systems characterization
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.877
H-Index - 56
eISSN - 1521-4117
pISSN - 0934-0866
DOI - 10.1002/ppsc.19910080156
Subject(s) - respirator , particle counter , penetration (warfare) , aerosol , particle size , dispersity , materials science , aerodynamic diameter , condensation particle counter , particle (ecology) , cloud condensation nuclei , analytical chemistry (journal) , chemistry , chromatography , composite material , particle number , physics , mathematics , volume (thermodynamics) , polymer chemistry , thermodynamics , organic chemistry , oceanography , operations research , geology
An experimental study of the filtration performance of several commercially available, NIOSH‐approved, disposable respirators was conducted using monodisperse DOP and NaCl particles with diameters in the 0.035 to 4 μm range. The aerosol penetration through the respirators were measured at flow rates of 16, 28 and 48 L/m using a condensation nucleus counter, an aerodynamic particle sizer, and a laser optical particle counter for purposes of comparison. The results obtained by these instruments were found to be in good agreement with each other in the overlapping region of particle size of the instruments. The peak penetration through the respirator filters was found to range from approximately 1.2% to 30% at 16 L/m, 3.5% to 37% at 28 L/m, and 6% to 45% at 48 L/m. The most penetrating particle size was found to lie in the 0.1 to 0.4 μm diameter range. Further, no significant difference in penetration for NaCl and DOP particles was found, suggesting that the particlebounce effect was not important in the present study.