Spectral emissivity of type E235B low carbon structural steel with different roughnesses

A self-built experimental apparatus was employed to study the spectral emissivity of type E235B low carbon structural steel in the wavelength range 2–15 μm at different temperatures by energy comparison method. The surface roughness and topography of the steel E235B were determined by a roughness tester and a scanning electron microscopy, respectively. And then, the spectral emissivity of steel E235B with six different roughnesses was measured before and after oxidation. The measurement results showed that the spectral emissivity increased with the increasing temperature and surface roughness before oxidation. The effect of roughness on the spectral emissivity is different at different wavelength and temperature ranges. However, the oscillatory behavior of the spectral emissivity was observed after oxidation. To explore the possible reasons for emissivity variation, the changes of surface roughness and optical roughness were investigated after oxidation. It is found that both the surface roughness and optical roughness increased after oxidation. Although the optical roughness can be used as one of the parameters to evaluate the effect of surface roughness on the spectral emissivity, it is insufficient to describe the effect of surface morphology on the spectral emissivity.