The purpose of ratiocinative engineering services LLC?s (ratioc) proposal is to develop a testbed that will lead to more accessible and robust quality control testing of air filtration and ventilation…

The Ratiocinative Engineering Services LLC was awarded a $3,076,048 cooperative agreement from the Department of Commerce National Institute of Standards and Technology under the Science, Technology, Business and/or Education Outreach federal grant program (CFDA 11.620). The award will support development of a testbed to evaluate air filtration and ventilation systems for removing airborne infectious diseases such as coronavirus from indoor spaces. Activities under Phases I and II include testing a prototype air filtration testbed using proxy infectious particles and developing a repeatable working testbed. Expected outcomes are a system that can dynamically measure an air filtration system's effectiveness at multiple indoor airspace locations. Intended beneficiaries include air filtration developers, schools, public buildings, and workspaces. Subrecipients Royal Circuit Solutions, Eric Layton Consultant, Particle Measurement Systems, and EMI Test Lab will provide printed circuit boards, custom parts machining, industry standard comparisons, and technical input to support testbed development and commercialization planning.

Activities

Activities to performed in phases i and II are as follows:phase i: to test the feasibility of an air filtration testbed (including a particle generator and detection system) for efficacy at removing proxy infectious particles from an air space.phase II: to develop repeatable working prototype testbeds for determining how efficientlyan air filtration system is capable of clearing the proxy infectious particles from the air volume, as well as determining inter-room particle.

Expected outcomes

The product being proposed by ratioc will result in a system that can measure the dynamic effectiveness of an air filtration system by sensing proxy infectious disease particles at multiple sites in a built airspace and retain consistency with standards for indoor air quality. By generating multiple (quadrature), unique fluorescent particles instead of relying on ambient particles, lower cost instrumentation can be utilized, better data can be collected, and the testing can be run more quickly.

Intended beneficiaries

Intended beneficiaries include air filtration development companies, schools, public buildings, workspaces, and other indoor areas.

Subrecipient activities

In phase i, subrecipient activities will consist of the following:- production of prototype printed circuit boards, to interface with leds and digitizefluorescence signals will be provided by royal circuit solutions (hollister, california).- machining of custom parts for both the particle generator and the fluorescent sensorsincluding housings and precision optical parts eric layton - consultant.- comparisons to existing industry standards for particle measurement will be provided by particle measurement systems (boulder, colorado).- technical input for fluorescence design provided by DR. Carson teale, consultantphase II subrecipient activities will consist of the following:- manufacturing quantity production of printed circuit boards, for design reproducibility, verification and validation to be provided by royal circuit solutions (hollister, california).- machining and injection molding of custom parts for both the particle generator and thefluorescent sensors (housings, precision optical parts) to be provided by eric layton.- comparisons to existing industry standards for particle measurement to be provided by particle measurement systems (boulder, colorado).- FCC EMC pre-compliance testing ? Planning for commercialization to be provided by EMI test lab (longmont, colorado).- technical input for the optical system will be provided by DR. Carson teale, consultant.