NIOSH Office of Mine Safety and Health Research Laboratory

A marple chamber is used to simulate an aerosol atmosphere found in underground mines

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The Diesel/Aerosol Research Laboratory is capable of creating an atmosphere that closely simulates diesel emission concentrations (particulate and gases), dust concentrations, temperature, and humidity found in underground mines. The main features of this laboratory include; a Marple chamber, an aerosol generator, a diesel generator, a filtered compressed air system and sampling instrumentation.

• 1. An aerosol generator is used to introduce different types of dust into the Marple chamber.
• 2. A diesel generator, which can operate under a variety of load conditions, is used to introduce diesel emissions into the Marple chamber.
• 3. The Marple chamber dilutes the introduced particles to the desired concentrations and uniformly disperses these particulates throughout a mid-sectional sampling volume.
• 4. A filtered compressed air system is the source of the dilution air for the Marple chamber. This system allows for the adjustment of the chamber temperature and humidity and controls the concentration of diesel emissions provided to the chamber from a diesel engine.
• 5. This laboratory is equipped with sampling instrumentation including; a tapered element oscillating microbalance for determining particulate mass, a critical orifice assembly for filter collection of the diesel particulate, real time elemental carbon monitors, and real time gas monitors for measuring nitrogen monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide.

The Diesel/Aerosol Research Laboratory also contains carbon analyzers to perform NIOSH method 5040 on field and laboratory samples.

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