A simultaneous charge and size measurement method for individual airborne particles using digital holographic particle imaging

Recently, significant inquiry to understand the effects of particle charge on particle laden flow have been made, particularly in the study of Lagrangian particle-pair statistics. Quantification of individual particle charge allows relation of inter-particle electric forces and turbulence-induced forces. Here we offer a simultaneous, individual particle charge and size measurement technique utilizing in-line digital holographic Particle Tracking Velocimetry (hPTV). The method measures particle electric mobility through its velocity response within a uniform electric field using a sequence of holograms, next the particle diameter is measured with the same holograms using a matched-filter developed by Lu et al. (2012) as an input for calculation of charge. Consequently, a benefit of this method is that particle charge is calculated on the individual level, versus a mean charge calculated from a group of particles, offering improved estimations of charge distributions for studies of particle laden flow.