Surface Reactivity of Combustion Generated Soot Particles.

The focus of this AASERT grant was the development of two novel measurement approaches for soot property characterization laser-induced incandescence and intrusive probe sampling of soot particles from diffusion flames. Characterization of the laser-induced incandescence technique for soot particle measurements in laminar diffusion flames resulted in the development of a new quantitative measurement technique for soot volume fraction and marked the first use of this technique for quantitative measurements. In particular, the relationship between laser fluence and the temporal character of the laser-induced incandescence signal was carefully examined and documented. Based on the laminar flame work, the technique was extended to soot particle measurements in turbulent diffusion, spray and droplet flames with similar quantitative results. Concurrently, an intrusive probe sampling system to collect soot particles from laminar diffusion flames was developed. This sampling system provided collection sample sizes up to 2 grams of soot. Large soot samples were required to allow for appropriate surface area characterization which was conducted using a BET measurement approach. jg p1