A Micromachined High-Output Aerosol Generator

Existing aerosol generators cannot meet the Army's need for sufficiently high output, monodisperse aerosols for use in room-size test chambers. We propose an innovative aerosol generator that will produce aerosols of the required size and at production rates that meet (or can far exceed, if desired) the stated requirements. Our design is made possible by our proprietary high-speed micromachining and droplet generation technology. In Phase I, we will assemble and test a proof-of-principle aerosol generator to demonstrate the feasibility of our approach and design the full-scale Phase II prototype. The resulting aerosol generator will be simple to operate, compact, and provide highly monodisperse aerosols at up to very high concentrations. BENEFITS: The proposed aerosol generator will meet or exceed the Army's requirements. The design is scalable and could be used in a variety of applications, including testing of ventilation systems, dispersion of agents for agriculture, materials processing, and biomedical research.