Omni-Directional, Wind and Water Tolerant Inlet for the DFU

The current DFU inlet exhibits poor aerosol sampling efficiency at high wind speeds. This project will develop an improved inlet with very high sampling efficiency for 1 to 20 micron particles at wind speeds up to 30 mph independent of wind direction. The project is focused on the DFU, but our Aerodynamic Next Generation Inlet (ANGI) will be beneficial for any high volume aerosol sampling application such as the JBPDS, Portal Shield, Biowatch, and BAND systems. A scaled-down version can also be used for low-flow sampling and would be beneficial for the JBTDS and BAWS systems. In Phase I we developed a design that is predicted to achieve >90% sampling efficiency for respirable particles up to 30 mph. In Phase II we will fabricate and test a series of prototypes based on this design to demonstrate the predicted performance experimentally. We will also develop a fabrication method that will be used to produce low-cost prototypes which will be tested at the University of Minnesota’s Particle Calibration Laboratory and at the ECBC Aerosol Sciences Center. Additionally, tests will be performed at the University of Washington to demonstrate the rain and salt spray tolerance of the ANGI.