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Abstract

An apparatus and procedure is described for the characterization of sprays composed by spherical particles, by means of a laser source (1) generating a collimated laser beam (2) that is passed through the spray to be characterized. The laser beam is made to coincide with the x-axis of a cartesian coordinate system (3) contained in a measurement plane perpendicular to the spray axis. A scattering collection means (5) is disposed to obtain the 90.degree. scattering activity produced by the spray material in a small probe volume formed at the intersection of the laser beam and the object volume of the scattering collection means. Additional collection means (14) are included to obtain the attenuation of the laser beam passing trough the measurement plane. The optical systems (5 and 14) are coupled to photodetectors (10 and 18) and signal processing units (10' and 18') able to generate electrical signals proportional to the received light intensities. A transverse means is also disposed to move the spray along the laser beam direction and perpendicular to it as to sequentially obtain a tomographic record of the scattering and attenuation activity in points of the spray forming a Cartesian grid within the measurement plane. Concentration measuring means (21) are coupled to the attenuation and scattering electrical signals output to extract the information related to the number density of the spray in the nodes of the tomographic grid system.

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