A novel nonintrusive soot diagnostics methodology was developed, validated and applied for in-situ determination of temperature, volume fraction and refractive index of soot aggregates formed inside flames by using near-infrared emission spectrometry. Research was conducted in three main parts, first one addressing development and validation of a comprehensive direct model for simulation of line-of-sight radiative emission from axisymmetric sooty flames by coupling sub-models for radiative transfer, radiative properties and optical constants. Radiative property for soot agglomerates was investigated by experimentally validating DDA method against microwave measurements and using it as a reference to assess applicability of simpler RDG-FA approximation. Part two concerns experimental investigation of an axisymmetric ethylene/air diffusion flame by Fourier Transform Near-Infrared spectroscopy. Measurement of line-of-sight emission intensity spectra was performed along with analyses on calibration, noise, uncertainty and reproducibility. Final part focuses on development, evaluation and application of an inversion methodology that inputs spectral emission intensity measurements from optically thin flames, removes noise, identifies soot refractive index from spectral gradients and retrieves soot temperature and volume fraction fields by tomographic reconstruction. Validation with simulated data and favourable application to measurements indicate that proposed methodology is a promising option for nonintrusive soot diagnostics in flames.VILLEURBANNE-DOC'INSA LYON (692662301) / SudocSudocFranceTurkeyFRT