Diesel Exhaust/Mine Dust Virtual Impactor Personal Aerosol Sampler: Design, Calibration and Field Evaluation

A virtual impactor personal aerosol sampler (VIPAS) has been developed for use in diesel-equipped mines to collect size-separated samples of diesel exhaust and mine dust particles in the respirable size range. This sampler consists of three stages: a t O-mm cyclone, a 0.8-J.lm cutpoint virtual impactor and two filter cassettes. The large nonrespirable particles are removed in a to-mm cyclone. The respirable particles from the cyclone pass through a 0.8-J.lm cutpoint virtual impactor with the particles larger than and smaller than 0.8 J.lm (mine dust and diesel exhaust particles, respectively) collected on two 37-mm filter cassettes. The sampling flow rate is 2 Ljmin so as to be compatible with the standard respirable dust sampler and personal sampling pumps.