A Novel Approach to Resuspend Particles of Controlled Morphologies in a 3D Printed Wind Tunnel

Particle resuspension is an omnipresent source of aerosols into the environment as the necessary detachment force to return particles to the atmosphere can arise from a variety of environmental and anthropogenic mechanisms. Despite the significance of resuspension, the phenomenon is often neglected in aerosol dispersion models as there is limited understanding on the magnitude of the effect and its influencing factors. We provide a route towards determining the role of particle-specific characteristics, such as morphology, on resuspension efficiency with the aim of introducing greater complexity to resuspension models. A combination of two unique instruments is introduced, a quadrupole electrodynamic trap to fabricate particles and a small-scale 3D printed wind tunnel. Together they provide a method for manufacturing and resuspending particles of a reproducible spherical and non-spherical shape without the need for large or costly equipment. Experiments resuspending spherical glass standards and raspberry-shaped dried sodium chloride particles, alongside anemometer flow field analysis, were implemented to validate the approach and provide insight into potential limitations, including the necessity to increase non-spherical particle resuspension rates to evaluate the impacts of morphology in the future This provides the foundation for future experiments with increasing deviations from idealized conditions and prospective step-wise resuspension model developments.