Vienna-type DMA of high resolution and high flow rate

A variant of the Vienna DMA ( Winklmayr et al. 1991; Reischl et al. 1997) with inner and outer electrode radii of 25 and 33 mm, and a conventional trumpet inlet diameter of 97mmhas been tested. It incorporates a reduced pressure drop sheath gas exhaust system that enables reaching flow rates approaching 4000 L/min. Several new additional flow features are included to delay the transition to turbulent conditions. A cylindrical geometry with a DMA length L of 97 mm ( distance between the aerosol inlet and outlet slits) is seen to keep the flow laminar up to the highest Reynolds number achieved, though showing slight signs of flow quality deterioration at about Re= 20,000. An equally longDMAwith an inner electrode shaped as a 5 degrees cone caped by a spherical dome remains stable up to the highest Reynolds number achieved. It is expected to continue this trend to considerably higher flow rates. Both these long configurations exhibit line widths close to the ideal Brownian diffusion limit, reaching FWHH of 4% for a particle mass diameter of 1 nm. A short DMA with an axial length of 18mm and an inner electrode shaped as a 5 degrees cone caped by an ellipse of 3/2 aspect ratio remains also laminar at the highest speeds attained, and exhibits FWHH as small as 2.4%. It departs moderately from ideal behaviour at small flow rates, presumably due to its non-cylindrical geometry. More serious departures observed at high Reynolds numbers may perhaps be due to flow unsteadiness radiated into the working section by sound waves from the turbulent exhaust region. This is the first report of a DMA capable of excellent resolution at 1 nm, yet with a sufficiently wide and long working section to enable ( in principle) covering the size range up to 100 nm.