Establishing aerosol exposure predictive models based on vibration measurements

This paper establishes particulate exposure predictive models based on vibration measurements under various concrete drilling conditions. The whole study was conducted in an exposure chamber using a full-scale mockup of concrete drilling simulator to simulate six drilling conditions. For each drilling condition, the vibration of the three orthogonal axes (i.e., a_x, a_y, and a_z) was measured from the hand tool. Particulate exposure concentrations to the total suspended particulate (C_TSP), PM₁₀ (C_PM10), and PM_2.5 (C_PM2.5) were measured at the downwind side of the drilling simulator. Empirical models for predicting C_TSP, C_PM10 and C_PM2.5 were done based on measured a_x, a_y, and a_z using the generalized additive model. Good agreement between measured aerosol exposures and vibrations was found with R²>0.969. Our results also suggest that a_x was mainly contributed by the abrasive wear. On the other hand, a_y and a_z were mainly contributed by both the impact wear and brittle fracture wear. The approach developed from the present study has the potential to provide a cheaper and convenient method for assessing aerosol exposures from various emission sources, particularly when conducting conventional personal aerosol samplings are not possible in the filed.