Experimental relationship between the specific resistance of a HEPA filter and particle diameters of different aerosol materials.

摘要

The increase in pressure drop across a HEPA filter has been measured as a function of the particle mass loading using two materials with different particle morphologies. The HEPA filter media chosen, is identical to the filter media used in the Airborne Activity Confinement System (AACS) on the Savannah River Reactors. The velocity through the test filter media was the same as the velocity through the AACS media, under normal operating flow conditions. Sodium Chloride challenge particles were generated using an atomizer, resulting in regularly shaped crystalline forms. Ammonium chloride aerosols were formed from the gas phase reaction of HCl and NH(sub 4)OH vapors resulting in irregular agglomerates. In both cases, the generation conditions were adjusted to provide several different particle size distributions. For each particle size distribution, the mass of material loaded per unit area of filter per unit pressure drop for a given filtration velocity (1/Specific resistance) was measured. Theoretical considerations in the most widely accepted filter cake model predict that the mass per unit area and per unit pressure drop should increase with the particle density times the particle diameter squared. However, these test results indicate that the increase in the mass loaded per unit area per unit pressure drop, for both materials, can be better described by plotting the specific resistance divided by the particle density as an inverse function of the particle density times the particle diameter squared. 9 refs., 7 figs.