Abstract: Principles of aerosol transport mechanics are widely used to describe the performance of various sampling,filtration and aerosol processing devices, and to the prediction of their main parameters of engineering interest. Previous studies have aimed at the transport of aerosol flow in tubes, there are few studies of aerosol transport mechanics in packed columns. In this paper, the experimental method used in the investigation was the real-time measurements of the time-dependent aerosol particles concentration at the outlet of the packed columns, when submicrometer monodispersed solid spherical polystyrene aerosol particles were instantaneously introduced at the inlet to clean nitrogen flowing through the irregular-shaped quartz random-packed columns. The mean retention time and penetration were derived from the distribution of retention time. The results showed that flow velocity of the carrier gas, packed column length, aerosol particles size and quartz size effected the mean retention time and penetration of aerosols. The longer the packed column, the slower the flow velocity and the smaller aerosol particles size and quartz size, the lower the penetration coefficients. The mean retention time of aerosol particles increased with packed column length, decreased with the flow velocity increased, and was almost independent of the quartz size. The results obtained can be used to filtration and purification of aerosol particles.

Key words: Submicrometer, Aerosol, Packed column, Retention time, Penetration coefficient