Application of Fractal Geometry in Quantitative Characterization of Aerosol Morphology

Chung‐Te ‐T Lee, Charles C.‐K Chou

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

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Abstract

The aerosol morphologies of six types of particles plus one other from a different source were characterized quantitatively in terms of fractal dimensions based on boundary, projected area and surface roughness. Except for the particle with a smooth boundary, multifractal features were observed on the projected boundary of aerosols. It was found that the fractal dimensions of the aerosol boundaries in the high‐resolution region ranged from 1.00 to 1.13, whereas those in the low‐resolution region were distributed from 1.04 to 1.91. The compactness of a particle could be examined in terms of the fractal dimension of its projected area such that a solid particle gave a value of 2.00, a hollow particle with pores inside gave a value of 1.93 and a chain agglomerate gave an even lower value of 1.81. Aerosol topological features retrieved from the gray levels of a microimage were used to illustrate the difference in surface roughness or distinguish particle deposition on the substrate from that of agglomeration. A value of 2.49 was found for a hollow sphere in contrast to a value of 2.26 for a round pollen particle. Finally, a coordinate system was established by employing the computed fractal dimensions as axes to accommodate the particles characterized in this work and the Euclidean distance of a point from the origin was shown to be a potential composite index for aerosol morphology.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)436-441
Number of pages6
JournalParticle and Particle Systems Characterization
Volume11
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 1994

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