Topics in Aerosol Physics (ATSC5880) Homework

Sampling efficiencies
Unless otherwise specified assume p = 1 g cm-3, T=293 K, P=780 hPa.
1) The aerosol inlet on the UW Kingair is conical with an opening of 6.9 mm diameter.
The tube then expands to a diameter of 34.8 mm before the aerosol sampling line
encounters a 90 bend. The inlet length is 3 m. The aerosol sample flow rate of the
aerosol inlet is 170 L min-1. Typical aircraft speeds are 160 knots at a sampling
altitude of 700 hPa for straight and level flight. In the cabin particles in the size range
0.01 to 10.0 m are measured.
a) What are the Reynolds numbers at the inlet tip and after full expansion? Is this
flow turbulent or laminar?
b) What are the stokes numbers for the relevant particles.
c) Is the sampling tube isokinetic? If not how would particle concentrations have to
be adjusted to account for particle over/under sampling?
d) What particle losses may occur due to aerosol loss in the 90 bend?
e) What particle losses may occur due to diffusion?
f) Provide a summary graph of sampling efficiency accounting for all sampling bias
across the size range of aerosol sampled.
2) The aerosol inlets on the UW balloon-borne optical particle counters (dust and OPC)
have diameters of 1.8 and 4.5 mm and straight sampling tubes 150 mm long. The
aerosol sample flow rates are 1.0 and 10 liters min-1. Typical balloon rise rates are 5
10 (in the stratosphere) m s-1, with the sampling altitude ranging from 1000 hPa to 5
hPa. The measurements cover the size range 0.3 to 0.6 and 0.3 to 20.0 m diameter
for these two instruments. For the range of pressures and particles sampled for each
instrument:
a) What are the Reynolds numbers for these inlets? Is this flow turbulent or laminar?
b) What are the stokes numbers for the relevant particles for each instrument?
c) Is the sampling tube isokinetic? If not how would particle concentrations have to
be adjusted to account for particle over/under sampling?
d) What particle losses may occur due to diffusion?
e) Provide a summary graph of sampling efficiency accounting for all sampling bias
across the size range of aerosol sampled for each instrument. Do this for 780, 100,
50, 10 hPa and three rise rates 5, 7.5 and 10 m s-1.