Author: Abde Kapadia

Publisher:

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13:

Data reduction methods for the electrical aerosol analyzer (EAA) and the diffusi on battery-condensation nuclei counter (DB-CNC) are presented. Both the EAA and DB-CNC can be modeled by the Fredholm Integral Equation of the First Kind. Thus, the data reduction methods for both the instruments are similar. For the EAA, f our data reduction methods are presented. First, an optimized EAA channel method is presented, in which the channel boundaries are chosen such that the response matrix can be approximated by an identity matrix. This method is applicable onl y for specialized applications of the EAA. The next two methods are based on two non-linear algorithms (NLIA). When using the NLIA's, no assumption regarding th e form of the aerosol size distribution must be made. Finally, a curve-fitting p rocedure based on a simplex minimization algorithm is investigated. This method gives the parameters of unimodal or bimodal log-normal distribution which best f its the data. The two NLIA's and the curve-fitting procedure were also applied t o the DB-CNC data reduction problem. The data reduction methods for both the ins truments were analyzed with simulated and experimental data. For the EAA, the co mparison between the different data reduction methods for the number of distribu tion is excellent. However, for the surface and volume distributions, the agreem ent was only satisfactory in the size range of 0.316 to 1.0 (mu)m. The agreement between the number distribution retrieved by the three data reduction methods f or the DB-CNC was found to be good. Also, between different diffusion battery me asurements for the same aerosol, the geometric number mean diameters (DGN) deter mined by the simplex minimization curve-fitting procedure agree satisfactorily. However, the agreement in the various estimates of the geometric standard deviat ion becomes unsatisfactory as the DGN increases. Finally, it was shown that for large number mean diameters, the response of the diffusion battery does not chan ge significantly with a considerable change in the dispersion parameter, g. Thus, the resolution of g with the diffusion battery is poor.