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Measurement of Size, Number Concentration and Velocity of Aerosol Particles using an optical particle counter
Author(s) -
Sachweh Bernd
Publication year - 1993
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.19930100205
Subject(s) - particle counter , optics , photomultiplier , aerosol , particle (ecology) , signal (programming language) , particle number , physics , particle size , aperture (computer memory) , volume (thermodynamics) , light scattering , light beam , chemistry , scattering , acoustics , detector , oceanography , quantum mechanics , meteorology , computer science , programming language , geology
An aerosol measurement instrument is presented which allows for the simultaneous measurement of the size distribution, number concentration and velocities of particles. A commercial optical particle counter (OPC) was modified in terms of optics and signal evaluation to provide the required measurement information. The design of this instrument allows the definition of a cubic measuring volume by purely optical means. This is achieved by an aperture/lens system which projects a sharply defined light beam into a stream of aerosol flow. Light scattered from single particles at average angles of 90° is collected by two opposite receiver units, each projecting light on to a separate photomultiplier. The intensity of the scattered light with this instrument is found to be an unambiguous function of the particle size. The total number of particles detected per unit time results in the particle flux. The particle velocity can be calculated, in principle, through the correlation of the signal length and the optical length of the measuring volume, provided that the particles have a straight trajectory through the measuring volume and the measuring volume length in the mean flow direction is well defined. The absence of sharpness in real optical projections effects a border zone of definite length, in which the illumination declines to zero. This leads, together with the low‐pass filtering of the particle signals, to an increase in the length of the signal slopes, causing some difficulties in the determination of the signal length. A digital signal evaluation technique was developed that renders possible the clear differentiation between the slope and the kernel region of the signal. The latter represents the motion of particles through the completely illuminated region, which can be a more accurate parameter to define the signal length. In addition to the signal length determination, a cross‐correlation technique was tested for its potential to obtain particle velocity. the instrument has two interlaced measuring volumes of nearly the same size, which are shifted for this special application in the main flow direction by 20 μm. The phase difference between the signals from the two photomultipliers, together with the optical distance, yields the particle velocity.