SEDIMENTATION METHOD IN CALIBRATING OPTICAL-PARTICLE COUNTERS

The use of a horizontal elutriator in calibrating optical particle counters according to aerodynamic particle size has been studied. As elutriator a ceramic component with 4800 parallel square channels with dimensions of 0.1 × 0.1 × 15.2 cm has been used. The advantage of the present method is that the particle penetration characteristic of the elutriator can be easily changed simply by varying the flow rate. The elutriator has been used in studying the properties of an optical particle size analyzer (PMS Las-X). The relationship between the equivalent aerodynamic particle size and the corresponding particle size indicated by the analyzer has been determined by using Arizona road dust particles and dioctylphthalate particles. The practical size range of the method is Dp≥ 0.3 μm. © 1990 Elsevier Science Publishing Co., Inc.