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Improving Measurements of the Mixing State and Mass Concentration of Particulate Emissions from Aircraft Engines

  • Author / Creator
    Dickau, Matthew A
  • This research is focused towards improving techniques used to measure particulate emissions from aircraft engines, on two fronts: first, to characterize and quantify the mixing state of particulate emissions; and second, to calibrate black carbon mass instruments with a traceable mass concentration measurement system. Mixing state refers to the relative proportions of volatile and non-volatile material in an aerosol, and the way these components are combined. The mixing state affects optical and moisture absorption properties, and quantifying it is therefore important for studying an aerosol’s climate impact. Described in this work is a method to quantify the mixing state by measuring the mass distributions of different components of an aerosol. The method is demonstrated with a test aerosol and then used to measure the mixing state of soot from a Gnome aircraft engine. Instruments that can measure the mass concentration of black carbon in real time are being increasingly used in research and industry, but these instruments (the Laser Induced Incandescence 300 and the Micro Soot Sensor) use indirect techniques, measuring parameters other than the actual mass of particulate, and therefore require calibration. Previously, it has been shown that a centrifugal particle mass analyzer (CPMA) can be used in conjunction with an aerosol electrometer to traceably generate an aerosol with known mass concentration. This system can be used to rapidly calibrate particle mass instruments (on the order of minutes), without the time-consuming process of filter sampling which is often used for calibration and prone to sampling artifacts. Here the feasibility of the CPMA-electrometer system as a calibration method is demonstrated, using two LII 300 instruments and two MSS instruments.

  • Subjects / Keywords
  • Graduation date
    Spring 2016
  • Type of Item
    Thesis
  • Degree
    Master of Science
  • DOI
    https://doi.org/10.7939/R3W950T2N
  • License
    This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.