CHARACTERIZATION AND MODELING OF A FAMILY OF CYCLONE AEROSOL PRESEPARATORS

Experiments have been carried out on two groups of cyclones to determi ne how their behaviour depends on geometry and flow rate. Empirical mo dels predicting the cyclone cut points as a function of body diameter and flow rate were fitted to the data. Additional geometrical paramete rs such as the cone shape, grit pot diameter, inlet and vortex outlet dimensions were also found to influence the cyclone cut points, but no t the slope of the penetration curves. The empirical models fitted wer e used to calculate cyclone dimensions suited to a number of different applications in health-related aerosol sampling. Cyclones were identi fied to sample according to the proposed EPA fine particle standard an d also to international conventions for respirable and thoracic aeroso l fractions. The cyclones tested were shown to have significant advant ages in terms of sampling bias over other cyclones currently in use fo r sampling respirable dust. Crown Copyright (C) 1997. Published by Els evier Science Ltd.