## 3 Results and Discussion
### New Procedure for Beam-Steering Correction
In order to show the applicability of the presented method for measurements where real and apparent droplet size distributions are completely separated, a measurement at low liquid viscosity (\(\upmu\) = 0.12 Pa\(\cdot\)s) is shown in Figure 8. In addition to uncorrected (squares) and modified sum distributions (line), droplet size distributions corrected by detector deactivation (triangles, detectors 1-8 deactivated) and distribution cutting (circles) are depicted. In the presented example, all three correction methods (detector deactivation, manual cutting, and the new modification procedure) are applicable, as real and apparent droplet size distributions do not overlap in the density distribution curve, see Figure 3A. All methods are capable of removing the beam-steering plateau from the measured droplet size distribution. The resulting corrected sum distributions show excellent agreement with each other in this example. In Figure 9, characteristic values of droplet size distributions are shown for gas pressures p\({}_{\text{gas}}\) of 0.6 MPa (left) and 0.8 MPa (right) and different liquid viscosities (0.12, 0.39, 0.69 Pa\(\cdot\)s). As characteristic values of droplet size distributions, the percentiles x\({}_{10,3}\), x\({}_{50,3}\), x\({}_{90,3}\), and the sauter mean diameter (\(\overline{x}_{1,2}\)) are presented. Values of the measurement without correction are indicated by empty symbols. Values corrected by corrected by detector deactivation method are indicated by half-filled symbols. Values corrected by the new modification procedure are indicated by filled symbols. To improve the readability of the diagram, the so-called point shift technique is used. This means that data points are shifted around the given viscosities of 0.12, 0.39, and 0.69 Pa\(\cdot\)s, respectively. Nevertheless, although they are shifted, the values in one group have the same viscosity. Figure 8: Comparison of beam-steering correction methods. Sum distributions of a measurement with low viscous medium (\(\upmu\) = 0.12 Pa\(\cdot\)s, p\({}_{\text{gas}}\) = 0.8 MPa). Uncorrected measurement (squares), correction by manual cutting (empty circles), correction by detector deactivation (filled circles), and correction by the new modification procedure described (line). As would be expected, larger droplets and wider droplet size distributions, represented by larger differences between x\({}_{10,3}\) and x\({}_{90,3}\) values, are generated with increasing liquid viscosity. At both applied gas pressures (0.6 and 0.8 MPa) each characteristic value (x\({}_{10,3}\), x\({}_{50,3}\), x\({}_{90,3}\), \(\overline{x}_{1,2}\)) increases significantly (\(p<0.05\)) with increasing viscosity (0.12, 0.39, 0.69 Pa-s), independently of the handling of the beam-steering effect. Comparing the results at the same viscosity, characteristic values decrease significantly with increasing gas pressure, with the exception of uncorrected x\({}_{90,3}\) values (measurement without correction) at viscosities of 0.39 and 0.69 Pa-s. Comparing values of the measurement without correction to corrected values, at the same viscosity and a gas pressure of 0.8 MPa, all corrected values are significantly smaller than uncorrected ones, independently of the used correction method. When a gas pressure of 0.6 MPa is applied, this is only the case for values of x\({}_{90,3}\). When results of the two different correction methods are compared to each other at the same viscosities and gas pressures, x\({}_{90,3}\) values of the new modification method are significantly smaller than the ones generated by detector deactivation. Exceptions include the results at a gas pressure of 0.6 MPa and a viscosity of 0.39 Pa-s, as well as the results at a gas pressure of 0.8 MPa and a viscosity of 0.12 Pa-s. In these cases, no significant differences are found between the x\({}_{90,3}\) values of the two methods. Also for all other characteristic values (x\({}_{10,3}\), x\({}_{50,3}\), \(\overline{x}_{1,2}\)), no significant differences between the results of both methods are found.