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Updated: Aug 9, 2026

Flame Experiments at the Advanced Light Source: New Insights into Soot Formation Processes
Published on: May 26, 2014
Forward-illumination light-extinction technique for soot measurement
1Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1206 West Green Street, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA.
Abstract:
A forward-illumination light-extinction (FILE) soot volume fraction measurement technique was developed and tested. By using a camera and a point light source in front of the flame and a diffuser behind the flame, with this technique one can achieve a two-dimensional soot concentration measurement with only one window when one is studying confined combustion. The line-of-sight quantitative soot volume fraction is obtained by calculation of the reflected light intensity with or without the presence of soot cloud. Verification of this technique was accomplished by measurement of an axisymmetric ethylene diffusion flame. The field distribution obtained by Abel inversion is presented and matched well with previous point measurements. The FILE technique has high time resolution when a high-speed camera and a copper vapor laser are adopted. All these advantages of FILE make it suitable for line-of-sight integrated, two-dimensional soot distribution of transient combustion, e.g., in the case of in-cylinder Diesel combustion.
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