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An auto-compensating laser-induced incandescence (AC-LII) technique was applied for the first time to measure soot volume fraction (SVF) and effective primary particle diameter (dpeff) in a high pressure methane/air non-premixed flame. The measured dpeff profiles had annular structures and radial symmetry, and the particle size increased with increasing pressure. LII-determined SVFs were lower than those measured by a line of sight attenuation (LOSA) technique. The LOSA measured soot volume fractions were corrected for light scattering using the Rayleigh–Debye–Gans polydisperse fractal aggregate (RDG-PFA) theory, the dpeff data, and assumptions regarding the soot aggregate size distribution. The correction dramatically improved agreement between data obtained using these two measurement techniques. Qualitatively, soot volume distributions obtained using LII had more annular shapes than those obtained using LOSA. Nonetheless, it has been demonstrated that the AC-LII technique is very well suited for application in media where attenuation of the excitation laser pulse energy can exceed 45%. This paper also underlines the importance of correcting LOSA SVF measurements for light scattering in high pressure flames. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An improved aggregate-based low-fluence laser-induced incandescence (LII) model has been developed. The shielding effect in heat conduction between aggregated soot particles and the surrounding gas was modeled using the concept of the equivalent heat transfer sphere. The diameter of such an equivalent sphere was determined from direct simulation Monte Carlo calculations in the free molecular regime as functions of the aggregate size and the thermal accommodation coefficient of soot. Both the primary soot particle diameter and the aggregate size distributions are assumed to be lognormal. The effective temperature of a soot particle ensemble containing different primary particle diameters and aggregate sizes in the laser probe volume was calculated based on the ratio of the total thermal radiation intensities of soot particles at 400 and 780 nm to simulate the experimentally measured soot particle temperature using two-color optical pyrometry. The effect of primary particle diameter polydispersity is in general important and should be considered. The effect of aggregate size polydispersity is relatively unimportant when the heat conduction between the primary particles and the surrounding gas takes place in the free-molecular regime; however, it starts to become important when the heat conduction process occurs in the near transition regime. The model developed in this study was also applied to the re-determination of the thermal accommodation coefficient of soot in an atmospheric pressure laminar ethylene diffusion flame. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Laser-induced incandescence (LII) of nano-second pulsed laser heated nano-particles has been developed into a popular technique for characterizing concentration and size of particles suspended in a gas and continues to draw increased research attention. Heat conduction is in general the dominant particle cooling mechanism after the laser pulse. Accurate calculation of the particle cooling rate is essential for accurate analysis of LII experimental data. Modelling of particle conduction heat loss has often been flawed. This paper attempts to provide a comprehensive review of the heat conduction modelling practice in the LII literature and an overview of the physics of heat conduction loss from a single spherical particle in the entire range of Knudsen number with emphasis on the transition regime. Various transition regime models developed in the literature are discussed with their accuracy evaluated against direct simulation Monte Carlo results under different particle-to-gas temperature ratios. The importance of accounting for the variation of the thermal properties of the surrounding gas between the gas temperature and the particle temperature is demonstrated. Effects of using these heat conduction models on the inferred particle diameter or the thermal accommodation coefficient are also evaluated. The popular McCoy and Cha model is extensively discussed and evaluated. Based on its superior accuracy in the entire transition regime and even under large particle-to-gas temperature ratios, the Fuchs boundary-sphere model is recommended for modeling particle heat conduction cooling in LII applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]