Electro-optical method and system for in situ measurements of particulate mass density

摘要

A system and method provides electro-optical in situ measurements of the mass per unit volume of particulate matter suspended in a fluid medium. A beam of electromagnetic radiation is directed through a portion of the medium and radiation back-scattered from an optically defined volume thereof is detected and utilized to provide an indication of the mass of the particles per unit volume of the medium. The beam is preferably a periodically interrupted beam of substantially monochromatic light having a wavelength of the order of magnitude of the mean diameter of the particles of interest. In one embodiment, the d.c. component of the detection signal is filtered out to eliminate the effect of any background radiation.