Particulate mass determination in aerosols by means of sound velocity measurements

The study shows that determination of large quantities of particulate masses in a system of gas and particulate matter is feasible using a weak shock wave going through the mixture. The measuring probes used for the study are two pressure gauges that record the shock wave propagation velocity and the pressure gradients over the wave. The mass quantities are determined up to μ=1 from the Rankine-Hugoniot relations of the mixture. The results showing that the proposed method is feasible, further developments will have to concentrate on automatic, computerized data evaluation, which will lead to the method being suitable for fast in-situ measurements. (orig./HP)