Scattering/extinction measurements of soot formation in a shock tube

The understanding of the mechanism of soot formation and growth in combustion systems is a challenging task. Although many works are found in literature concerning experimental measurements and modelling development, efforts are still required to have a deep knowledge of soot formation mechanisms. Tanks to the application of optical diagnostics techniques, experiments in shock tube give important contribution to this. This work is focused on the development and application of the laser extinction/scattering technique in shock tube experiments. Emphasis is given to the scattering optical arrangement for the determination of soot size growth. Results concerning the induction delay time, the soot yield and the particle diameter growth are presented for the pyrolysis of ethylene and toluene at pressure about 500 kPa and for a wide range of temperature.