Humankind has fascinated itself with technology ever since the discovery of fire. It is the hunger to
know more that leads to research for things. But, the boon of technology comes with a cost of living
and enduring it for generations. One such radical change, that transformed our imagination of flying
into reality is the invention of air-crafts. Rapid growth of aviation industry after the world war was
the achievement of this long-lived dream of humankind. Even though the graph of development was
rising but so were its adverse effects on the nature and life. Release of soot and non-volatile
particulate matter(nvPM) into atmosphere is one of the problems that started affecting health and
well-being of life on earth and since then the measures to counter this problem are under constant
monitoring and study. Present work intends to provide a comprehensive understanding of the soot
formation in swirl stabilized gas turbine turbulent flames in high pressure environments up to 10bar.
Non-intrusive optical diagnostics is employed to study the course of soot through different zones of
RQL combustor.
Conventional techniques of laser diagnostics including Laser Induced Incandescence (LII), Planar
Laser Induced Fluorescence (PLIF) etc. were being in practice for over a decade now and has known
to deliver fruitful results. However, some limitations were noted. Current study employs a novel LII
technique to study soot volume fraction and mean particle size distribution inside an optical RQL
combustor. Additionally, PLIF of OH and CH is also planned to obtain the temperature distribution
and flame location respectively. Results of this research are expected to aid in developing state-of-
art soot prediction model.