Numerical Investigation of Finite-Amplitude Pressure Wave Propagation in Gas Suspensions: Application to Aerosol Characterization

Aerosol characterization is an important procedure that has been carried out for many applications, ranging from manufacturing, healthcare to environmental monitoring. This paper proposes an alternative method to perform aerosol characterization based on pressure wave propagation. Preliminary numerical study of pressure wave propagation in gaseous media containing suspended particles is presented in detail. A numerical scheme based on Crank-Nicolson finite differencing and trapezoidal quadrature discretization methods is employed to simulate the evolution and energy dissipation of the pressure wave. The solutions can be used to characterize size and volume fraction of aerosol droplets in air. Simulation results are presented and discussed.