Smoke Particulate Monitors: 2006 Update
New Laboratory Evaluation
This evaluation included two Met One Instruments Inc. E-BAM monitors (one with a dc pump, and the other with an ac pump), two Met One Instruments Inc. E-Samplers, three TSI Inc. DUSTTRAK monitors, four Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. DataRAM 4 monitors, and three Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. DataRAM 2000 monitors.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Federal Reference Method (FRM) gravimetric sampler, a BGI Inc. PQ–200, was used as the standard. The FRM gravimetric filters were weighed by the RMRS Fire Sciences Laboratory in Missoula, MT.
Previous laboratory evaluations were conducted at the RMRS laboratory. Because the laboratory was not available for this evaluation, it was conducted in a large enclosed room at MTDC. The room is an industrial paint booth 14 feet wide, 9 feet tall, and 30 feet long. The ends of the booth were blocked off using a large plastic tarp and cardboard to keep the smoke in the room. Monitors were set up side by side inside the chamber (figure 2). Smoke was made by burning small amounts of pine needles on a piece of thick aluminum foil on the floor of the paint booth. A fan mixed the smoke in the room.
The accuracy of the real-time monitors was determined by comparing the real-time results to the results from an approved FRM gravimetric sampler. The FRM sampler uses a pump to draw air across a filter that captures the smoke particulate. The filter is weighed before and after the tests to determine the total amount (mass) of particulate that was captured. The sampler calculates the volume of air that is drawn across the filter during the test. The average smoke concentration, represented in micrograms per cubic meter, can be calculated by dividing the mass by the total volume. The average realtime particulate concentration is calculated for the time the FRM sampler was operating.
Figure 2—The real-time smoke particulate monitors and the
Federal Reference
Method sampler shown inside the
smoke chamber during testing.
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