As in the case of dust measurement, the concentration of oil mist can be detected photometrically by scattered light measurement.
One practical application of this method is the monitoring of engine rooms on oceangoing tankers. In the event of leakage in one of the high-pressure lines feeding oil to the big diesels, extremely fine diesel oil mist is created. Because the mist is highly explosive, it is a matter of life and death to detect even tiny amounts quickly and to signal their presence.
The installation used for this purpose consists of a turbidimeter for detecting the scattered light produced by the tiny droplets, and a multiple sampling setup. The latter sends samples from 36 critical points in the engine room to the turbidimeter over distances up to 200 m. Multiple sampling