Lecture 2 – Sept.

14, 2011

Particulate characteristics

Today’s topics:

• Particulate properties of interest for industrial processing

• Impact of particulates on the respiratory process – analogies to particulate

capture for industrial processes

• Examine particle size characteristics

Particulate characteristics:
• Particle shape
‰ Many shapes arising from industrial processing operations – often
depends on basic structure of the material.
‰ We will treat the particles as spheres with an equivalent
aerodynamic diameter.
‰ This assumption can be checked with more detailed analysis of the
aerodynamic properties of particles.

• Particle density/mass
‰ Most particles fall in the range:
~ 0.8 g/cm3 < ρP < ~ 8 g/cm3

• Particle size
‰ Broad range of sizes, 0.01 µm → 100 µm
‰ Size depends on method of generation
‰ Large particles arise from solids processing
‰ Small particles arise from high temperature
condensation/coagulation
Respiratory deposition

Fig. 1-1

Larger and smaller particles deposited more easily – impaction and diffusion

Particles with DP ∼ 0.5 µm have poor deposition.

Fig. 2-1
Total respiratory tract deposition (as a percentage deposition of
amount inhaled) in humans as a function of particle size. Source:
EPA PM Criteria document.
Methods of particle generation

Fig. 3-1
Particle size characteristics
• Normal distribution – a.k.a. “bell-shaped”
curve, Gaussian distribution, etc.

• How do we estimate parameters for these

types of functions?

• What variations on this model are best

suited for particle sizing?
Topics:
• Respiratory impact of particulates

• The normal distribution, pages 6-8

• Self-study problem #1-2, page 12 (next class)

• Excel simulation examples, pages 9-12 (next

class)