NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS REPORT

8165

PERFORMANCE TEST OF A "DUSTFOE" DEEP-BED

DISPOSABLE AIR FILTER, MODEL G-1000

manufactured by

Mine Safety Appliances Company

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

by

Joseph C. Davis and Paul R. Achenbach

Report to

General Services Administration

Public Buildings Service

Washington 25, D. C.

U. S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

NATIONAL DUREAU OF STANDARDS
U. S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Luther H. Hodges, Secretary

NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS

A. V. Astin, Director

THE NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS

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NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS REPORT

ms PROJECT NBS REPORT

1003-30-10630 January 10, 1964 8l65

PERFORMANCE TEST OF A "DUSTFOE" DEEP-BED

DISPOSABLE AIR FILTER, MODEL G-1000

manufactured by

Mine Safety Appliances Company

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

by

Joseph C. Davis and Paul R. Achenbach

Mechanical Systems Section

Building Research Division

to

General Services Administration

Public Buildings Service

Washington 25., D. C.

IMPORTANT NOTICE NATIONAL BUREAU OF ST

for use within the Government, and review. For this reason, thi whole or in part, is not author Bureau of Standards, Washingt

the Report has been specifically

Approved for public release by the

Director of the National Institute of

Standards and Technology (NIST)

on October 9, 2015.

ss accounting documents intended

subjected to additional evaluation

listing of this Report, either in

; Office of the Director, National

the Government agency for which

opies for its own use.

U. S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS

PERFORMANCE TEST OF A "DUSTFOE” DEEP-BED

DISPOSABLE AIR FILTER, MODEL G-IOOO

manufactured by

Mine Safety Appliances Company

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

by

Joseph C. Davis and Paul R. Achenbach

1 . Introduction

At the request of the Public Building Services, the performance characteristics of a "Dustfoe”, Model G-1000, disposable

deep-bed air filter manufactured by the Mine Safety Appliances

Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, were determined. The

scope of the investigations included the determination of the

arrestance of the particulate matter in the laboratory air and

of Cottrell precipitate by the filter, and the pressure drop of

the filter at the rated air flow of 1000 cfm as the dust* load

was progressively increased from zero to a final value co-rre- sponding to a pressure drop of 1.0 in. W.G.

2 . Description of Test Specimen

The filter was manufactured and supplied for test purposes

by the Mine Safety Appliances Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was identified as "Dustfoe”, Model G-1000. The outride dimensions of the filter unit were 23 1/2” x 23 1/2” x 6”.

Four pieces of 1/8” cement-asbestos board 23 l/2”x 6”, with galvanized metal angles front and back formed a rigid box frame.

The filter media area was approximately 112 ft 2 and consisted

of a glass fiber mat. The filter media was folded into 70 pleats,

5 inches deep, and was supported on separators of corrugated

aluminum 5 1/2 inches wide with 3/8 inch corrugations. The

gross face area of the filter unit was 3.84 ft 2

, but the enclosing edges of the metal frames reduced the net face dimensions

to 22 1/2” by 22 1/2” and the net face area to 3-52 ft .

At the rated air flow of 1000 cfm the net face velocity

was 284 ft/min and the average air velocity through the filter

media was about 9 ft/min. The weight of the clean filter was

about 5^610 grams or 12.4 lb.
!•;
3 . Test Method and Procedure

The filter was tested at the rated air flow of 1000 cfm.

The arrestance determinations were made with the NBS Dust

Spot Method described in a paper by R. S. Dill entitled "A

Test Method For Air Filters” (ASHVE Transactions, Vol. 44,

p. 379, 1938). The filter under test was installed in the

test apparatus and carefully sealed to prevent any by-pass of

air or inward flow into the test apparatus, except through

the measuring orifice. After establishing the correct air

flow rate through the filter, samples of air were drawn from

the center points of the test duct 2 feet upstream and 8 feet

downstream of the test specimen at equal rates and passed

through known areas of Whatman No. 4l filter paper. Arrestance determinations were made using the particulate matter in

the laboratory air as the aerosol and also with Cottrell precipitate injected into the air stream at a ratio of 1 gram

per 1000 cu. ft. of air.

The light transmission of the sampling papers was measured

before and after the test and

the two sampling papers used for any one arrestance determination were selected to have the same light transmission when

clean

.

For determining the arrestance of the particulate matter

in the laboratory air, equal sampling areas were used in the

upstream and downstream samplers. A similar increase of the

opacity of the two sampling papers was obtained by passing

the sampling air through the upstream paper only part of the

time while operating the downstream sampler continuously.

This time proportioning was accomplished with the use of one

solenoid valve in the upstream sampling line and another in

a line by-passing the sampler. The solenoid valves were

operated by an electric timer and a relay so that one was open

while the other one was closed during any desired percentage

of the 5-minute timer cycle, reversing the position of the two

valves during the remainder of the cycle. The arrestance, A,

(in percent), was then determined with the formula:

A = 100 - T x

AD

AU

where T is the percentage of time during which air was drawn

through the upstream sampler, and AU and AD are the observed

changes in the opacity of the upstream and downstream sampling

papers, respectively. For each level of filter loading, two

determinations were made. The value of arrestance reported

in each case was the average obtained from the two determinations .

- 2 -
.
For determining the arrestance of the filter with

Cottrell precipitate as the test dust, different size areas

of sampling paper were used upstream and downstream of the

filter in order to obtain a similar increase of opacity on

both sampling papers. The arrestance was then calculated

by the formula:

A 1

S D x AD

Su AU

x 100

where the symbols A, AU and AD are defined the same as indicated above and Sp and Sp are the upstream and downstream

sampling areas, respectively.

Both types of arrestance determinations were made at the

beginning and at the end of the test and at several intermediate loading conditions. The loading was done incrementally,

each increment consisting of 96 parts Cottrell precipitate

and 4 parts of cotton linters, by weight. The Cottrell precipitate had been previously sifted through a 100-mesh screen

and the lint was prepared by grinding No. 7 cotton linters

through a Wiley mill with a 4-millimeter screen.

The pressure drop across the filter under test was recorded

at the beginning of the test, after each arrestance determination, and after each increment of Cottrell precipitate and

lint that was introduced into the test duct. The test was

terminated when the pressure drop across the filter reached

1.0 in. W.G.

At the rated air flow of 1000 cfm, a small fraction of the

Cottrell precipitate and lint dropped out of the air upstream

from the filter during the test. The total amount of fallout

was determined as 80 grams at the conclusion of the test, and

the amount of loading for each incremental determination was

adjusted proportionally to the size of the increment.

Upon . completion of the test on the first filter specimen

a test without loading on the filter media was performed on

another specimen supplied by the manufacturer. For this test,

an arrestance determination was made using only the laboratory

air as the aerosol. The pressure drop across the filter was

also observed under these conditions.

- 3

-

4. Test Results

The test results obtained on the two air filter specimens

at an air flow rate of 1000 cfm are summarized in Table 1„

The dust loads shown in this table are the weights of Cottrell

precipitate and lint introduced into the test apparatus diminished by the percentage of dust fallout upstream of the filter.

It will be noted that the pressure drop increased from

0.174 in. W. G. with a clean filter to 1.034 in. W. G. after

a dust load of 1730 grams had reached the filter.

The arrestance of the dust in the atmospheric air increased

from 36.2 percent to 86.1 percent during the loading period

and averaged approximately 63-7 percent. The dust load of

Cottrell precipitate and lint corresponding to a pressure drop

of 1.0 in. W.G. was 491 grams/ft 2 of net face area and about

15.5 grams/ft 2 of filter media. The arrestance values determined with Cottrell precipitate increased from an initial

value of 93.8 percent to a final value of 98.6 percent.

The values shown in Table 1 are graphically presented

in Figure 1. In this figure the arrestance of particulate

matter in the laboratory air, the arrestance for the Cottrell

precipitate and the pressure are all plotted against the dust

load

.

The initial pressure drop and arrestances of the two

filter specimens were essentially identical.

- 4 -

Table 1

Performance of Mine Safety Appliances

Company "Dustfoe" Disposable . Air Filters,

G-1000, At An Air Flow Rate of 1000 CFM

Dust Fed

Cottrell

ecipitate Lint

Cumulative

LoadA

Grams Grams Grams

0 0 0

140 5-6 139

320 12.8 318

520 20.8 517

840 33.6 835

1040 41.6 1034

1340 53.6 1332

1560 62.4 1541

1740 69 • 6 1730

Se

0 0 0

Arrestance of

Aerosol

Percent

Atmospheric5 Cottrell 0

36.2

42.6

46.5

51.1

60 .

6

72.0

82.6

85-7

86.1

93.8

95-5

97.1

98.3

98.6

98.5

99.1

98.6

cond Filter

37.0

Pressure

Drop

in . W . G.

.174

• 193

.215

.249

.335

.414

.610

.818

1.034

.178

A - Corrected for fallout

B _ Atmospheric-Aerosol is the particulate matter in the laboratory air

C - Cottrell-Aerosol is Cottrell precipitate in laboratory air

- 5

-

PRESSURE

DROP,

IN.

W.

G.

ARRESTANCE,

PER

CENT

PERFORMANCE CURVES FOR MINE SAFFTY

APPLIANCES "DUSTFOE” MODEL G-IOOO

DISPOSABLE AIR FILTER

DUST LOAD, GRAMS

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i))