Patent ID: 6879708

Claim:
A method for determining a mass flux of a particle, comprising: recording an image of the particle entrained in a two-phase flow, using a camera; and using a processor for determining a size of the particle as a function of a separation between spots identified on the particle, determining a velocity of the particle, and determining the mass flux of the particle as a function of the size and velocity, wherein the spots are glare spots and the separation between the glare spots is determined as: x o = - a ⁢ ⁢ M ⁢ ⁢ cos ⁢ θ o 2 ; x 1 = n ⁢ ⁢ a ⁢ ⁢ M ⁢ ⁢ sin ⁢ θ o 2 ⁡ [ n 2 + 1 - 2 ⁢ n ⁢ ⁢ cos ⁢ θ o 2 ] 1 2 ; and ⁢ ⁢ d p = 2 ⁢ Δɛ p  - M ⁢ ⁢ cos ⁢ θ 0 2  +  n ⁢ ⁢ M ⁢ ⁢ sin ⁢ θ 0 2 n 2 + 1 - 2 ⁢ n ⁢ ⁢ cos ⁢ θ 0 2  , where d p is an estimate of the particle diameter, n is a ratio of an index of refraction of a material of the particle to an index of refraction of a medium, a is a radius of the particle, M is an optical system magnification, Δ is a number of pixels separating the glare spots on a surface of a CCD, ε p is a size of the pixels in the CCD, and θ o is an observation angle.