Popis: |
A particle counter is an instrument that measures particles in all the fluid passing through its sensor, and a particle monitor measures particles only in a portion of the fluid. For liquid with an ultralow particle concentration, particles may not disperse uniformly in the liquid. Therefore, the concentrations may vary significantly from measurement to measurement if the sample volume is not large enough. To achieve the same precision, a minimum sampling time or minimum sample volume for a particle instrument needs to be specified. A Poisson distribution was used to describe the distribution of particle counts. Testing included a series of particle concentration measurements. Minimum sampling time or sample volume at a given average concentration with different error levels was determined for selected commercial particle instruments. At the same flow rate, a particle monitor always requires a longer sampling time than a particle counter to achieve a specific precision for a given concentration. The minimum sampling time also varies among instruments because of the difference in sample volume in which the particles are counted. Experiments with a particle monitor have been conducted to thest the changes in average particle concentration and the standard deviation at different operating conditions. |