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Investigation of High-efficiency Particulate Air Filter Plugging by Combustion Aerosols (NUREG/CR-4264)

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Publication Information
Abstract

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NUREG/CR-4264 (PDF - 1.59 MB)

Publication Information

D. L. Fenton. M. V. Gunaji
W. S. Gregory R. A. Martin

Manuscript submitted: April 1985
Date published: May 1985

Prepared for
Division of Risk Analysis
Off ice of Nuclear Regulatory Research
US Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Washington, DC 20555
NRIC FIN No. A7029

Mechanical Engineering Department,
New Mexico State University,
Las Cruces, NM 88003

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Abstract

Experiments were conducted to investigate high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter plugging by combustion aerosols. These tests were done to obtain empirical data to improve our modeling of filter plugging phenomena using the Los Alamos National Laboratory fire accident analysis code FIRAC. Commercially available 0.61-m by 0.61m square filters were tested in a specially designed facility to determine how airflow resistance varies with increased filter loading by combustion aerosols. Two organic fuels normally found in nuclear fuel cycle facilities, polystyrene (PS) and polymethylmetharcylate (PMMA), were burned under varied conditions to generate combustion aerosols. The test facility included a combustor, a 23-m-long duct, and a specially designed gravimetric balance for determining the aerosol mass gain of the filters.

Test results include correlations of HEPA filter resistance ratios (acutal resistance/intial resistance) with aerosol mass gain. The mass gain of plugged HEPA filters was found to correlate with the airborne mass concentration of material in the size range greater than apporximately 2.0 µm. also, the fuel with a smaller soot faction, PMMA, produced filter plugging at lower accumulated aerosol mass deposits on or within the filter.