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Droplet sizing calibration of the Phase Doppler Particle Analyzer

O; Hern, D.J.'.

The Phase Doppler Particle Analyzer (PDPA) is an LDV-based instrument for simultaneous measurement of single particle size and velocity. A PDPA calibration was performed using well-characterized liquid droplets in the 4 to 80 ..mu..m diameter range. Two test liquids were used: oleic acid and kerosene. A standard PDPA instrument and a fiber-optic probe PDPA system were tested. The standard instrument measurements agreed with expected droplet diameters to within the droplet generation accuracy for droplets above 15 ..mu..m diameter, and had a measurement accuracy of about 2 ..mu..m for smaller droplets. The fiber-optic probe system exhibited similar behavior, although the 2 ..mu..m sizing uncertainty extended to droplets as large as 25 ..mu..m. The measurement uncertainties in the small diameter ranges are in qualitative agreement with the light-scattering computations of Al-Chalabi et al. (1988) and Saffman et al. (1984). 7 refs., 4 figs.