AAAR 34th Annual Conference
October 12 - October 16, 2015
Hyatt Regency
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Abstract View
Design and Performance Improvements of the Miniature Electrical Aerosol Spectrometer
ISHARA JAYASURIYA, Suresh Dhaniyala, Clarkson University
Abstract Number: 353 Working Group: Instrumentation and Methods
Abstract The Miniature Electrical Aerosol Spectrometer (MEAS) (M. Ranjan and S. Dhaniyala, 2007, 2008) is an electrical mobility based particle sizing instrument that is compact in size (~10cm x 2cm x 5cm), and has fast response (<1s). In the MEAS, charged particles are size segregated based on their electrical mobility and these particles are captured on different collection plates. The resulting current signal from the collected particle population is measured by using a high end electrometer or a source meter. Since sampling and detection are simultaneous operations, real-time size distribution measurements are possible with MEAS. Special electrostatic filtration system in the instrument enables single flow, low pressure drop instrument. In this study, design and performance of the MEAS is revisited and improved upon for a field deployable real time mobility instrument. The MEAS performance improvements are made in three areas: aerosol classification, signal detection, and charged conditioning. The latest technology on 3D printing and low current measurements techniques are implemented to eventual miniature, portable, and sensitive design. While establishing the theoretical principles of these improvements, the design criteria and performance improvements will be discussed in detail.