Application of the maximum entropy technique in tomographic reconstruction from laser diffraction data to determine local spray drop size distribution

This work proposes a new deconvolution technique to obtain local drop size distributions from line-of-sight intensity data measured by laser diffraction technique. The tomographic reconstruction, based on the maximum entropy (ME) technique, is applied to forward scattered light signal from a laser beam scanning horizontally through the spray on each plane from the center to the edge of spray, resulting in the reconstructed scattered light intensities at particular points in the spray. These reconstructed intensities are in turn converted to local drop size distributions. Unlike the classical method of the onion peeling technique or other mathematical transformation techniques that yield unrealistic negative scattered light intensity solutions, the maximum entropy constraints ensure positive light intensity. Experimental validations to the reconstructed results are achieved by using phase Doppler particle analyzer (PDPA). The results from the PDPA measurements agree very well with the proposed ME tomographic reconstruction.