Particle size distribution in biomass smoke was observed for different burning phases, including flaming and smouldering, during the combustion of nine common Australian vegetation representatives. Smoke particles generated during the smouldering phase of combustions were found to be coarser as compared to flaming aerosols for all hard species. In contrast, for leafy species, this trend was inversed. In addition, the combustion process was investigated over the entire duration of burning by acquiring data with one second time resolution for all nine species. Particles were separately characterised in two categories: fine particles with dominating diffusion properties measurable with diffusion-based instruments (Dp < 200 nm), and coarse particles with dominating inertia (Dp > 200 nm). It was found that fine particles contribute to more than 90 percent of the total fresh smoke particles for all investigated species.
Incipient motion of coarse particles under regular shoaling waves
