Effect of Selective Accommodation on Soot Aggregate Shielding in Time-Resolved Laser-Induced Incandescence Experiments

Abstract

Time-resolved laser-induced incandescence is an emerging diagnostic for characterizing primary particle size distributions within soot-laden aerosols. This measurement requires an accurate model of heat conduction between the laser-energized soot and the surrounding gas, which is complicated by the fractal-like structure of soot aggregates since primary particles on the aggregate exterior shield the interior from approaching gas molecules. Previous efforts to characterize aggregate shielding through direct simulation Monte Carlo analysis assume a Maxwell scattering kernel, which poorly represents actual gas/surface interactions. This paper shows how selective thermal accommodation into the translational and rotational modes of the gas molecule influences the aggregate shielding effect using the Cercignani–Lampis–Lord kernel and thermal accommodation coefficients derived from molecular dynamics simulations.