Laser probe design for carbon content in ash measurement

The polarisation ratio of the linearly polarised light backscattered by fly ash particles is indicative of the carbon content. The determination of this parameter is useful to characterise the efficiency of coal burning furnaces. The main aim of this work is to design a single optical probe to measure the polarisation ratio. A probe has been built that can be bolted onto a furnace duct, and it has been tested on a wide range of ashes. A neural network analysis has also been explored for predicting carbon content.