Experimental Study on Diesel Exhaust Particles Agglomeration Using Acoustic Waves

Diesel exhaust particles are a complex mixture of thousands of gases and fine substances that contain more than 40 different environmental contaminants. Being exposed to these exhaust particles (called soot) can cause lung damage and respiratory problems. Diesel particulate filters are used in many countries for mobile sources as a legal obligation to decrease harmful effect of these fine particles. The size range of these particles is varied from 0.01 to 1 µm. Moreover, it takes a long time to be settled when they are outspread in atmosphere. In this paper, homogeneous plane standing waves are used to coagulate nano particles in order to achieve larger size which has a better gravitational settling. It means that fine particles are converted into a large one. Theoretical mechanisms are studied which led to experimental results in 155(db) and 160 (db). The results show that acoustic precipitators have a good performance in removing fine particles in diesel exhaust. Additionally, they indicate that at high pressure levels, the system has high efficiency for removing fine particles