Photography and sizing of burning droplets

Laser-triggered stroboscopic photography has been used to obtain high quality images of moving, burning fuel droplets. A narrow laser beam defined the focal plane of a photographic system which was focused onto the beam. Light scattered by a droplet in the beam was used to trigger a backlighting stroboscope. In addition, attenuation of the laser beam during the passage of a droplet has been used to yield information on droplet sizes. Large droplets can be sized regardless of shape or refractive index.