Laser ignition of iso-octane air aerosols

Iso-octane aerosols in air have been ignited with a focused Nd:YAG laser at pressures and temperatures of 100kPa and 270K and imaged using schlieren photography. The aerosol was generated using the Wilson cloud chamber technique. The droplet diameter, gas phase equivalence ratio and droplet number density were determined. The input laser energy and overall equivalence ratio were varied. For 270mJ pulse energies initial breakdown occurred at a number of sites along the laser beam axis. From measurements of the shock wave velocity it was found that energy was not deposited into the sites evenly. At pulse energies of 32mJ a single ignition site was observed. Overall fuel lean flames were observed to locally extinguish, however both stoichiometric and fuel rich flames were ignited. The minimum ignition energy was found to depend on the likelihood of a droplet existing at the focus of the laser beam.