Methods for analyzing respirable particles in bulk materials
AssigneeUnited States Gypsum Company
InventorsJames W. Barber, Feng Peng
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Provided is a method for detecting respirable participles in a bulk material comprising particles. The method comprises: analyzing morphology of the particles; analyzing chemical composition of the particles; creating a profile of the particles, wherein each particle in the profile is characterized by its shape, size and chemical composition; selecting particles from the profile which match the size and chemical composition of a respirable particle; and calculating a percentage of the respirable particles in the bulk material.
Claims7
A method for detecting respirable participles in a bulk material sample comprising particles, the method comprising:
- weighing the bulk material sample;
- resuspending the particles of the bulk material sample in a medium selected from water and/or organic solvent, and filtering the suspension through a filter with a nominal pore size sufficiently small to retain the particles in the respirable size range;
- analyzing morphology of the particles;
- analyzing chemical composition of the particles;
- creating a profile of the particles, wherein each particle in the profile is characterized by its shape, size and chemical composition;
- counting the particles as a total number of the particles in the bulk material sample;
- selecting particles from the profile which match the size smaller than 20 microns and chemical composition of a respirable particle comprising silica (SiO2);
- counting the selected particles as respirable particles;
- and
- calculating a percentage of the respirable particles from the total number of the particles in the bulk material sample.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.