Estimation of particle size distribution and aspect ratio of non-spherical particles from chord length distribution

This paper presents a comprehensive algorithm which produces estimates of particle size distribution and particle aspect ratio from measured CLD data. While the algorithm searches for a global best solution to the inverse problem without requiring further a priori information on the range of particle sizes present in the population or aspect ratio of particles, suitable regularisation techniques based on relevant additional information can be implemented as required to obtain physically reasonable size distributions. We used the algorithm to analyse CLD data for samples of needle-like crystalline particles of various lengths using two previously published CLD models for ellipsoids and for thin cylinders to estimate particle size distribution and shape. We found that the thin cylinder model yielded significantly better agreement with experimental data, while estimated particle size distributions and aspect ratios were in good agreement with those obtained from imaging.