Abstract

Accurate and automatic particle size distribution analysis is usually performed using either photon correlation spectroscopy, for the ~1 nm to ~1 micron range, or laser diffraction, for the ~1 micron to ~1 mm range.¹ Such devices are not traditionally installed on-line, although the increasingly sophisticated process industries are approaching the need for such measurements.² Optical sensors for particle sizing are required to upgrade the relatively crude and largely surrogate measurements, such as turbidity, that are currently employed.³ This paper addresses the on-line measurement of particle distributions by a novel measurement system based on the observation of non-Gaussian light fluctuations.

© 1994 IEEE