Abstract: | A method for finding the optimum sizes of pigment particles, their volume concentration, and the paint coating thickness that provide the covering power and the required coloristic characteristics of reflected light for the minimum flow rate of pigments is based on using a four-flow approximation of the solution to the equation of radiation transfer in dispersion media and is extended to coatings of complex composition. The capabilities of the method are demonstrated by examples of coatings of mixtures of hematite and rutile particles in a binder with n=1.5 for variations of the modal size and the half-width of the size distribution of the pigment particles. B. I. Stepanov Institute of Physics, Academy of Sciences of Belarus, 70, F. Skorina Ave., Minsk, 220072, Belarus. Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Spektroskopii, Vol. 64, No. 1, pp. 90–96, January–February, 1997. |