A procedure to determine the onset of soot agglomeration from multi-wavelength experiments

A procedure to identify agglomeration of soot particles in flames from multi-wavelength experiments is discussed. N-particle agglomerates are modeled by using a discrete dipole approximation. We find that measurements of the differential scattering and absorption coefficients, and phase function can be used to determine the number of agglomerated monomers, their size and the structure of the formed agglomerate. Representative results are presented for a complex index of refraction value typical for that of soot particles produced during combustion of hydrocarbon fuels. The same models produced for a range of refractive indices show that effects of this parameter on the presented results are negligible. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.