Inverse Analysis of Light Scattered by Soot Aggregates

Abstract

The impact of soot on human health and the environment is a function of its size and morphology. Thus, it is important to have a method to quickly and accurately determine the aggregate size distribution of soot.

Elastic light scattering is considered as a method to determine the aggregate size distribution in an aerosol. The relationship between the scattered light and the aggregate size distribution is derived and a robust inversion method is presented. The method is validated against artificial data. It is then applied to experimental data from a flame condition at which a distribution obtained from TEM analysis exists, and found to work quite well.

Finally, optimization is applied to the experimental angles at which light is measured. The results showed that there is indeed an optimal angle setup, and that the error at that optimal setup is reduced over other angular setups.