Soot volume fraction and particle size measurements with laser-induced incandescence

Laser-induced incandescence from soot was analyzed with a time-dependent, numerical model of particle heating and cooling processes that includes spatial and temporal intensity profiles associated with laser sheet illumination. For volume fraction measurements, substantial errors result primarily from changes in gas temperature and primary soot particle size. The errors can be reduced with the proper choice of detection wavelength, prompt gating, and high laser intensities. Two techniques for primary particle size measurements, based on ratios of laser-induced incandescence signals from a single laser pulse, were also examined. Compared with the ratio of two integration times, the newly proposed ratio of two detection wavelengths is better suited for simultaneous volume fraction and size measurements, because it is less temperature sensitive and produces stronger signals with, however, a lower sensitivity to size changes.     

Least-mean-squares algorithm to determine submicrometer particle diameter,volume fraction,and size distribution width by elastic light scattering

A computationally fast method to determine values and their uncertainty for particulate system volume median diameter, volume fraction, and size distribution width is presented. These properties cannot be obtained for submicrometer particulate by diffraction-based methods. The technique relies on a least-mean-squares method applied over a prespecified size range and distribution width. Prespecifying the range significantly reduces the number of calculations required to determine the particulate parameters from experimental data, allowing the practical evaluation of large data sets. The solution method that was developed has significant advantages over ratio-style calculations that are more commonly performed, the primary of which is a simple method to determine errors in the measurement parameters. We evaluated the predicted performance for a specific experimental system for various levels of noise, with monodisperse and log-normal distributions, by analyzing synthetic data with the algorithm. Results were a quantitative statement of system accuracy. In addition, synthetic log-normal data evaluated with monodisperse models revealed significant and systematic errors in the predicted volume median diameter. These errors indicate that, in general, systems with a significant size distribution width must be analyzed with a model that includes this size distribution. Finally, calibrated polystyrene spheres were measured with an experimental system that used four simultaneous scattering measurements, and all diameters were within the reported uncertainty.     

Simulating the effects of multiple scattering on images of dense sprays and particle fields

Most optical measurements in turbid media (including sprays, fogs, particulate and colloidal suspensions) assume single scattering of the detected photons. Multiple scattering introduces error, which has been quantified in very few systems. To quantify this error, we have written a flexible Monte Carlo photon transport simulation code capable of handling any three-dimensional geometry. Simulations of planar laser spray imaging with large, nonabsorbing particles show that up to 50% of the photons reaching the camera are multiply scattered. Because forward scattering dominates, the image is affected little. For particles with more absorption or with size closer to the wavelength of the light than those we have simulated, the effects are expected to be more serious.     

Application of 3D-DIC to characterize the effect of aggregate size and volume on non-uniform shrinkage strain distribution in concrete

To elucidate the effect of aggregate size and volume on the non-uniform strain distribution in concrete, drying shrinkage of mortar and concretes were determined with 3D digital image correlation (3D-DIC). The distribution of shrinkage displacements and strains in mortar and concrete were analyzed. The results show that 3D-DIC makes it possible to measure non-uniform displacement distributions initiated by shrinkage in mortar and concrete. The non-uniformity became more remarkable with drying time. The presence of aggregates larger than 5 mm in concrete have locally changed the displacement and strain fields. Aggregates within 5–25 mm make non-uniform strain of concrete more fluctuant, especially when the aggregate size is larger than 10 mm. The maximum and minimum principal strain distributions became more heterogeneous with decreasing volume of aggregates.     

Mapping electrospray modes and droplet size distributions for chitosan solutions in unentangled and entangled concentration regimes

Chitosan is a natural polymer that exists as a polyelectrolyte in acidic aqueous solutions. The solution viscosity strongly depends on the polymer’s molecular weight and concentration in the solution, and the solution pH. Microparticle production by electrospraying is of significant interest in the drug delivery applications of this biocompatible polymer. We report herein a study aimed at empirical understanding of the influence of electrospray process parameters on the size distribution of microdroplets of chitosan solutions with different molecular weights and concentrations. How the nature of interchain interactions in the solution affects the electrospray mode, was studied for different applied voltages, $V$, over a wide range of solution flow rates, $Q$. Stable cone-jets were observed only for solutions in the unentangled regime. Unlike solutions of non-polymeric electrolytes of comparable viscosities, the chitosan droplet size distribution generally showed a strong dependence not only on $Q$ but also on $V$ and the solution viscosity. Carrying out the electrospraying process at a higher voltage in the stable cone-jet mode resulted in smaller and more narrowly dispersed droplets. For the droplets produced in this mode, We～Re^1.79, where $\mathit{We}$ and $\mathit{Re}$ are the droplet Weber and Reynolds numbers, respectively. The order of dependence of the Sauter mean droplet diameter on $Q$ was found to be 0.26. Diameters of droplets produced in (or close to) the precession mode exhibited a significantly weaker dependence on $Q$. For a given wt% concentration in solution, a polymer of lower molecular weight resulted in a lower droplet size polydispersity index.     

Demonstration of droplet size and vaporization rate measurements in the near field of a two-phase jet with droplet lasing spectroscopy

Droplet lasing spectroscopy has been applied to the measurement of droplet size and evaporation rate in a spray. A single droplet, doped with laser dye, was injected along the centerline of a liquid spray. Filters were used to block the strong elastic-scattering signal. The lasing emission from the doped droplet could be detected against the background with mass loadings of liquid in the spray as high as 20%. An analysis of the spectrum of droplet lasing was used to evaluate the droplet diameter. The evaporation rate of the droplet was obtained from consecutive lasing spectra that were obtained from the same droplet. An error analysis of the drop size and drop evaporation measurements was carried out and showed that accurate measurements of evaporation rates were feasible.     

Determination of scattering volume fraction and particle size distribution in the superficial layer of a turbid medium by using diffuse reflectance spectroscopy

We have investigated the possibility of determining changes in the volume fraction of microstructure scatterers in the superficial tissue layers by using diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. To that extent we have built a two-layer optical phantom by using microparticles with various sizes in order to simulate the scattering properties of tissue microstructures. Reflectance spectral measurements were performed on a number of optical phantoms having different volume fractions of various microparticle sizes. An analytical model was developed using light-transport theory and fractal modeling approaches and was then fitted to the measured reflectance to calculate the volume fractions of the microparticles in phantoms. The results showed that we could measure changes in both the total volume fraction of the microparticles and in the overall size distribution of the microparticles with good accuracy (>80%). These results suggest the potential of using this method for measuring the volume fraction changes of tissue microstructure scatterers and applications in the detection of cancerous related morphological and structural changes.     

Effects of Sip size and volume fraction on properties of Al/Sip composites

Al–12 wt.% Si alloy matrix composites reinforced with high volume fraction of Si_p were fabricated by squeeze infiltration. The effects of the compacting pressure on the volume fraction of Si_p in preforms, and the influences of Si_p size and volume fraction on the properties of Al/Si_p composites were examined through this study. Si particles were compacted at different pressure of 40–130 MPa followed by sintered at 1000 °C for 7 h to obtain preforms containing 60–70 volume fraction (vol.%) of Si_p. The sintered preforms were then infiltrated with Al–12 wt.% Si alloy at 750 °C under a 75 MPa squeeze infiltration pressure. It was found that lower coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) and smaller density may be obtained with higher Si_p volume fraction, yet increasing Si_p volume fraction leads to higher amount of porosities in the composites and thus lowers the thermal conductivity (TC) and flexural strength. Besides, with the same Si_p volume fraction, coarse Si particles result in higher CTE and TC, while finer Si particles may lower CTE and enhance the flexural strength of the composites effectively. From the results obtained in this study, it is expected that the high volume fraction Si_p reinforced Al/Si_p composites posses good potential in electronic packaging applications.     

Development of precipitate size and volume fraction of niobium carbonitrides in stabilised stainless steel

Abstract

Niobium carbonitride (NbX) precipitates have been studied in a niobium stabilised austenitic stainless steel AISI type 347 with approximate nominal composition Fe–0.06C–17.5Cr–11.4Ni–0.8Nb. The steel was extruded to seamless tube, solution annealed at 1100°C for 3 min, water quenched, and subsequently isothermally aged at 700°C for times up to 70 000 h. Size distribution and volume fraction of the coarse distribution (1–10 µm) of NbX particles were measured using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The fine distribution (～30 nm) was investigated using energy filtered transmission electron microscopy (EFTEM). Size distribution and volume fraction were determined using jump ratio images. Coarse NbX (～0.3% volume fraction) precipitates were formed during solidification and extrusion, and were little affected by solution annealing and isothermal aging. Fine NbX (～0.5% volume fraction) precipitates formed during solution annealing and grew during the first 800 h of aging. Precipitate size determination using EFTEM appears to give accurate results, while volume fraction determination requires homogeneous material for good results.     

Effect of particle size ratio and volume fraction on shear strength of binary granular mixture

This paper deals with the mechanical properties of a binary granular mixture: a mixture of large and small frictional particles. The binary mixture is characterized by the particle size ratio (α = D _L /D _S ≥ 1), where D _L and D _S denote the diameter of large and small particles, and the volume fraction of the small particles W _S . In order to evaluate the shear strength of such a system, a transition range (W_S^a ￡ W_S ￡ W_S^b{W_{S}^{a} \le W_{S} \le W_{S}^{b}}), where W_S^a{W_{S}^{a}} and W_S^b{W_{S}^{b}} are minimum and maximum W _S values of the range, respectively, is defined as the range in which the interaction between the small and the large particles cannot be negligible. Then a simplified packing structure model is proposed to estimate W_S^a{W_{S}^{a}} and W_S^b{W_{S}^{b}} with respect to α. A series of 2D Discrete Element simulation and physical experiment proved that the proposed method can successfully describe the shear strength transition of the densely packed granular material both in 2D and 3D. As a general trend, it also turns out that the contribution of the small particles cannot be negligible even in their small content, and the contribution of large particles disappears when their average spacing with respect to the small particle size is around 2 both in the simulation and the experiment.     

Aperture size effects on backscatter intensity measurements in Earth and space remote sensing

Most materials show a peaked intensity versus phase (light-source-target-detector angle) curve. For nonnegligible angular apertures of the source and/or the detector, the measured intensity at and near zero phase (backscatter) is lower than the real one. We derive an averaging aperture integral that represents this effect, and with it we invert measured intensity values to obtain the actual intensity curve. We also give a practical formula for estimating the magnitude of the aperture effect in zero-phase intensity measurements and show that only two such measurements made at different apertures are sufficient for deriving the real intensity. These corrections are needed in the comparison of measured reflectances in an increasing number of validation efforts for remote sensing applications requiring ground truth measurements.     

Pore size and pore volume effects on alumina and TCP ceramic scaffolds

Controlled porosity alumina and β-tricalcium phosphate ceramic scaffolds with pore sizes in the range of 300–500 μm and pore volumes in the range of 25–45% were processed using the indirect fused deposition process. Samples having different pore sizes with constant volume fraction porosity and different volume fractions porosity with a constant pore size were fabricated to understand the influence of porosity parameters on mechanical and biological properties. In vitro cell proliferation studies were carried out with OPC1 human osteoblast cell line for 28 days with different scaffolds. Variation in pore size did not show any conclusive differences, but samples with higher volume fraction porosity showed some evidence of increased cell growth. Volume fraction porosity also showed a stronger influence on the mechanical properties under uniaxial compression loading. Compression strength dropped significantly for samples with higher volume fraction porosity, but changed marginally when only the pore size was varied.     

Multiple-scattering lidar retrieval method: tests on Monte Carlo simulations and comparisons with in situ measurements

A multiple-field-of-view (MFOV) lidar measurement and solution technique has been developed to exploit the retrievable particle extinction and size information contained in the multiple-scattering contributions to aerosol lidar returns. We describe the proposed solution algorithm. The primary retrieved parameters are the extinction coefficient at the lidar wavelength and the effective particle diameter from which secondary products such as the extinction at other wavelengths and the liquid-water content (LWC) of liquid-phase clouds can be derived. The solutions are compared with true values in a series of Monte Carlo simulations and with in-cloud measurements. Good agreement is obtained for the simulations. For the field experiment, the retrieved effective droplet diameter and LWC for the available seven cases studied are on average 15% and 35% (worst case) smaller than the measured data, respectively. In the latter case, the analysis shows that the differences cannot be attributed solely to lidar inversion errors. Despite the limited penetration depth (150-300 m) of the lidar pulses, the results of the studied cases indicate that the retrieved lidar solutions remain statistically representative of measurements performed over the full cloud extent. Long-term MFOV lidar monitoring could thus become a practical and economical option for cloud statistical studies but more experimentation on more varied cloud conditions, especially for LWC, is still needed.     

Simulation of effects of particle size and volume fraction on Al alloy strength,elongation, and toughness by using strain gradient plasticity concept

By using the constitutive equation based on the mechanism-based strain gradient plasticity with finite element software, the yield strength, uniform elongation, and toughness of aluminum alloy 6063 with different grain sizes, different particle diameters and volume fractions were studied numerically. The toughness is defined as the product of yield strength and uniform elongation. The calculation results indicate that the grain refinement and particle refinement cannot substantially improve the uniform elongation but can increase the yield strength of Al alloy when the grain size is on the order of the micron and submicron scale. When the grain size less than 2 μm, Al alloys usually exhibit high strength and low uniform elongation, and when the grain size greater than 5 μm, the materials exhibit low strength and high elongation; in either case the toughness is low. However, in the grain size of several micrometers, the toughness of Al alloy is the highest.     

Bayesian assessment of uncertainty in aerosol size distributions and index of refraction retrieved from multiwavelength lidar measurements

We investigate the assessment of uncertainty in the inference of aerosol size distributions from backscatter and extinction measurements that can be obtained from a modern elastic/Raman lidar system with a Nd:YAG laser transmitter. To calculate the uncertainty, an analytic formula for the correlated probability density function (PDF) describing the error for an optical coefficient ratio is derived based on a normally distributed fractional error in the optical coefficients. Assuming a monomodal lognormal particle size distribution of spherical, homogeneous particles with a known index of refraction, we compare the assessment of uncertainty using a more conventional forward Monte Carlo method with that obtained from a Bayesian posterior PDF assuming a uniform prior PDF and show that substantial differences between the two methods exist. In addition, we use the posterior PDF formalism, which was extended to include an unknown refractive index, to find credible sets for a variety of optical measurement scenarios. We find the uncertainty is greatly reduced with the addition of suitable extinction measurements in contrast to the inclusion of extra backscatter coefficients, which we show to have a minimal effect and strengthens similar observations based on numerical regularization methods.     

Simultaneous estimation of the 3-D soot temperature and volume fraction distributions in asymmetric flames using high-speed stereoscopic images

An inverse radiation analysis using soot emission measured by a high-speed stereoscopic imaging system is described for simultaneous estimation of the 3-D soot temperature and volume fraction distributions in unsteady sooty flames. A new iterative reconstruction method taking self attenuation into account is developed based on the least squares minimum-residual algorithm. Numerical assessment and experimental measurement results of an ethylene/air diffusive flame show that the proposed method is efficient and capable of reconstructing the soot temperature and volume fraction distributions in unsteady flames. The accuracy is improved when self attenuation is considered.     

Fiber volume fraction effects on fatigue crack growth in SiC/Ti-15-3 composite

The effects of fiber volume fraction (15, 37, and 41%) on fatigue crack growth in unidirectional SiC/Ti-15-3 composite were investigated at room temperature. The effect of fiber volume fraction on the fiber bridging mechanism was studied to support development of physically-based crack growth models. While each fiber volume fraction exhibits similar decreasing crack growth rates prior to fiber bridging induced crack arrest, post-arrest behavior (observed after incrementally increasing the applied stress level) is quite different. After crack arrest, the 15% (37 and 41%) material exhibited higher (lower) crack growth rates and lower (higher) toughness values than the unreinforced matrix. These different behaviors occur because of differences in the amount of fiber bridging during the post-arrest regime. Metallography of interrupted tests revealed the extent of fiber bridging in the crack wake and matrix plasticity ahead of the crack tip. Models for predicting the effective matrix stress intensities were evaluated and compared to experimental data. A fiber pressure model and finite element studies were used to estimate the condition of the bridged fiber zone and associated fiber stresses. Since the vast majority of useful life for these materials experiences fatigue crack growth, these results assist in discerning an optimum fiber volume fraction for structural applications.     

A study on the effects of temperature and volume fraction on thermal conductivity of copper oxide nanofluid

By using copper oxide nanofluid fabricated by the self-made Submerged Arc Nanofluid Synthesis System (SANSS), this paper measures the thermal conductivity under different volume fractions and different temperatures by thermal properties analyzer, and analyzes the correlation among the thermal conductivity, volume fraction, and temperature of nanofluid. The CuO nanoparticles used in the experiment are needle-like, with a mean particle size of about 30 nm. They can be stably suspended in deionized water for a long time. The experimental results show that under the condition that the temperature is 40 degrees C, when the volume fraction of nanofluid increases from 0.2% to 0.8%, the thermal conductivity increment of the prepared nanofluid towards deionized water can be increased from 14.7% to 38.2%. Under the condition that the volume fraction is 0.8%, as the temperature of nanofluid rises from 5 degrees C to 40 degrees C, the thermal conductivity increment of the prepared nanofluid towards deionized water increases from 5.9% to 38.2%. Besides, the effects of temperature change are greater than the effects of volume fraction on the thermal conductivity of nanofluid. Therefore, when the self-made copper oxide nanofluid is applied to the heat exchange device under medium and high temperature, an optimal radiation effect can be acquired.