The angular polarization ratio for the characterization of small droplets in oil sprays

The angular patterns of the polarization ratio were calculated for droplets with diameters between 0.020 and 50 ?m at 500 nm wavelength. It was observed that the patterns for droplets slightly smaller than 1 ?m were dominated by a backward peak belonging to the glory. The peak was successfully used to characterize aerosols of light and heavy oils with a Junge-like size distribution. Experiments conducted with heavy oil sprays produced by air-assisted atomization presented the same feature. A quantitative comparison of the experimental results with the Lorenz-Mie theory showed that the size distribution of these sprays was bimodal.