The performance of the Electrical Low-Pressure Impactor (ELPI) has been eva
luated using monodisperse aerosols, ELPI is a near real-time size analyzer
consisting of an aerosol charger and a cascade impactor, Particle cut sizes
of the cascade impactor and the charging efficiency of the charger were de
termined experimentally in the designed range of the instrument, i.e. 0.03-
10 mu m. The Stokes numbers of 50% particle cut sizes of all the impactor s
tages were found to vary from 0.421 to 0.483 with an average of 0.456 and s
tandard deviation of 0.017. The collection efficiency curves were found to
be steep with an average steepness (ratio of 70% and 30% collection efficie
ncy) of 1.19. The charging efficiency of the charger was close to that spec
ified by the manufacturer for particles smaller than 2 mu m in diameter. Fo
r larger particles, a deviation from the-manufacturer's specifications was
observed. It results from the high particle loss in the charger because of
the small-size of the charger, strong trapping electric field, and the perp
endicular directions of the aerosol stream and the electric field in the ch
arging zone. A comparison with SMPS for size distribution measurements was
made in this study. The good agreement between the two measured size distri
butions shows the capability of the ELPI For near real-time particle size m
easurements. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.