Corrections to facilitate planar imaging of particle concentration in particle-laden flows using Mie scattering. Part 2: Diverging laser sheets

Abstract

Part 1 describes a model to account for the effect of particles on laser sheet attenuation in flows where particles are heterogeneously distributed and where particles are small compared with the imaged volume. Here we extend the model to account for the effect of a strongly diverging light sheet, which is desirable when investigating many turbulent flows, e.g., in two-phase combustion problems. A calibration constant, C(kappa), is derived to account for the attenuation of the incident laser sheet due to extinction of the laser beam through a seeded medium. This is shown to be effective in correcting both the effect of in-plane laser sheet attenuation and out-of-plane signal trapping due to particles in a jet flow heavily seeded with 5 g/s of 25-40 microm spherical particles. In the uncorrected case, attenuation causes up to 15% error in the mean concentration and 35% error on the rms fluctuations. Selecting an appropriate C(kappa) was found to remove the error in the mean concentration and reduce error on the rms fluctuation by half. Methods to estimate or measure an appropriate value of C(kappa) are also presented.