New Experimental Data for the Validation of Radiative Heat Transfer

The numerical simulation of radiative heat transfer is now well established. Key ingredients in such a simulation model are calculated view factors that are used to describe the exchange of radiated energy between different surfaces. Several methods for the calculation of these geometrical factors are available, including Integration, Monte Carlo, and the Hemi-cube methods. Several analytical test cases are also available, such as the well-known “parallel plates” case, which allow modelers to validate their view factor routines. However, there is much less information available that combines both view factor information and heat transfer effects simultaneously.

This article describes the construction of a simple testing rig that allows experiments to be performed that combine view factor effects with measured heat transfer exchanged between surfaces only. The equipment has been used to consider simple cases, such as the parallel plates test case, and also cases where shadowing is important. The results of these experiments are presented as experimental benchmarking data for model users and developers.     

Nanorod near-field radiative heat exchange analysis

A theoretical method for cylinder-to-cylinder radiative heat exchange is formulated. The method utilized was a modified version of a previously published numerical method for near-field sphere-to-sphere radiative exchange. Modifications were made to the numerical procedure to make it applicable to cylindrical geometry of nanorods. Nanorods investigated had length to diameter ratios of 3:1 and 7:1. The heat exchange of nanorods is plotted vs. gap to assess the impact of near-field radiative transfer as gap decreases. Graphical results of energy vs. nanorod radii are also presented. A nanorod-to-plane configuration is estimated utilizing a nanorod asymptotic method. The nanorod-to-nanorod method approximates a nanorod-to-plane geometric configuration when one nanorod radii is held constant, and the second nanorod radii is iteratively increased until the corresponding radiative exchange converges.     

Finite element approach for radiative transfer in multi-layer graded index cylindrical medium with Fresnel surfaces

Because the optical plane defined by the incidence and reflection direction at a cylindrical surface has a complicated relation with the local azimuthal angle and zenith angle in the traditional cylindrical coordinate system, it is difficult to deal with the specular reflective boundary condition in the solution of the traditional radiative transfer equation for cylindrical system. In this paper, a new radiative transfer equation for graded index medium in cylindrical system (RTEGCN) is derived based on a newly defined cylindrical coordinate system. In this new cylindrical coordinate system, the optical plane defined by the incidence and reflection direction is just the isometric plane of the local azimuthal angle, which facilitates the RTEGCN in dealing with cylindrical specular reflective boundaries. A least squares finite element method (LSFEM) is developed for solving radiative transfer in single and multi-layer cylindrical medium based on the discrete ordinates form of the RTEGCN. For multi-layer cylindrical medium, a radial basis function interpolation method is proposed to couple the radiative intensity at the interface between two adjacent layers. Various radiative transfer problems in both single and multi-layer cylindrical medium are tested. The results show that the present finite element approach has good accuracy to predict the radiative heat transfer in multi-layer cylindrical medium with Fresnel surfaces.     

Transient heat transfer in a spherical protective material, submitted to flux and mixed boundary conditions: an investigation on zirconia

An analytic solution is presented for describing combined radiation and conduction heat transfer in a spherical fiber thermal protection exposed to combined radiative and convective heating. The solution includes the equation of radiative transfer within the material, coupled to a transient energy equation that contains both radiative and convective terms. At elevated temperatures radiative transfer becomes important, and if several hot surfaces view each other, the radiation exchange process must be considered carefully. Some thermal protections are partially transparent to thermal radiation. Hence, an exchange process is complicated by radiation penetrating into and coming out of material. The radiation leaving an area depends on the temperature distribution inside that area and that is unknown and is affected by the exchange process to other areas. The analysis has allowed for unlimited spectral detail but assumes that the various material properties do not vary significantly with temperature. Transient temperature distributions are obtained for the boundary conditions of external radiation and convection. The present analysis includes the influence of reflectivity, surface radiative properties and spectral properties on the temperature distributions.     

Transient radiation and conduction heat transfer inside a plane-parallel participating gray medium with boundaries having different reflecting characteristics

A hybrid ray-tracing method is developed for the solution to the radiative transfer in a plane-parallel participating medium having one specular surface and another diffuse surface. By this method, radiative transfer coefficients (RTCs) for specular–diffuse (S–D) surfaces are deduced. The medium surfaces are considered to be semitransparent. The effects of convection–radiation parameter, conduction–radiation parameter and refractive index on transient coupled heat transfer are investigated. Results show that the temperature curves of the medium having S–D surfaces is higher than those of the medium having S–S surfaces (two specular surfaces); the total heat flux at steady state for the S–D surfaces is lower than that for the S–S surfaces.     

Radiative absorption in an infinitely long hollow cylinder with Fresnel surfaces

Radiation absorption in an infinitely long hollow cylinder with Fresnel surfaces is studied using the ray tracing method. It is found that the inner boundary can be modeled as a total reflective surface for the infinitely long hollow cylinder. Radiative absorption of hollow cylinders with Fresnel surfaces is compared to diffusive surfaces predicted by the finite volume method. Effects of refractive index, optical thickness and hole size on radiative absorption are studied. Abrupt changes in radiative absorption near τ_r/τ_Ro=1/n are observed for hollow cylinders with Fresnel surfaces. It is because the Fresnel relation predicts a critical angle at . This trend is not observed in diffusive surfaces. Refractive index and optical thickness are two competing factors that govern the radiative absorption. Higher refractive index drives higher absorption close to the inner surface, while higher optical thickness yields higher absorption near the outer surface. The results of this study can also serve as benchmark solutions for modeling radiative heat transfer in hollow cylinders with Fresnel surfaces. It is also found that the directional or hemispherical emittance can be calculated without solving the radiative transfer equation in the media when the temperature variation in the media is small.     

吸收-透射界面下正弦折射率介质内辐射换热

对具有吸收-透射性边界面的梯度折射率半透明介质层,建立了介质内热辐射传递与边界面辐射换热的数理模型,并采用数值弯曲光线跟踪法求解介质内的热辐射传递。通过数值模拟,分析了正弦折射率下,边界面的反射特性、吸收率以及介质层光学厚度对介质内热辐射平衡温度场及热流分布的影响。结果表明,边界面的反射特性与吸收率对介质内辐射换热均有重要影响,吸收率的影响与边界面反射特性、介质层光学厚度及环境条件相关,呈现特征不同的作用。     

Monte Carlo ray-tracing simulation for radiative heat transfer in turbulent fluctuating media under the optically thin fluctuation approximation

The Monte Carlo ray-tracing method (MCRT) based on the concept of radiation distribution factor is extended to solve radiative heat transfer problem in turbulent fluctuating media under the optically thin fluctuation approximation. A one-dimensional non-scattering turbulent fluctuating media is considered, in which the mean temperature and absorption coefficient distribution are assumed and the shape of probability density function is given. The distribution of the time-averaged volume radiation heat source is solved by MCRT and direct integration method. It is shown that the results of MCRT based on the concept of radiation distribution factor agree with these of integration solution very well, but results of MCRT based on the concept of radiative transfer coefficient do not agree with these of integration solution. The solution of time-averaged radiative transfer equation by the concept of radiative transfer coefficient should be treated with caution.     

A direct method for the integration of the equation of radiative transfer in a turbid atmosphere

In this paper we apply a numerical method on the equation of radiative transfer in a turbid atmosphere. The solution is obtained by means of direct integration of the equation of radiative transfer without any circuitous series development.     

Radiation symmetry test and uncertainty analysis of Monte Carlo method based on radiative exchange factor

Using Monte Carlo method, the paper investigates the radiative heat transfer in participating media. Based on the radiative exchange factor, an uncertainty analysis of Monte Carlo method is undertaken and the corresponding mathematical expressions are deduced to predict its accuracy. Furthermore, randomness properties of pseudorandom number generators are investigated, and a model to test radiation symmetry is adopted to validate the performance of some generators. The paper studies the effects of energy bundle numbers, discretization schemes, emission location, optical thicknesses, wall emissivity and CPU time on the numerical accuracy. In addition, the simulation results are proved to give a reference for using Monte Carlo method, which is applicable for calculation of the radiative exchange factor.     

圆筒形半透明介质内非稳态复合导热与辐射的研究

本文研究细长电加热体在圆筒形半透明介质中的温度响应，通过对控制非稳态导热与辐射复合传热过程的积分-微分方程直接进行数值求解，分析了热辐射对内部径向热流及温度变化的影响．模拟计算结果对热线法测量半透明介质导热系数的研究具有理论指导意义。     

Radiative transfer in finite cylindrical media using transformed integral equations

A modified direct integration method is presented to solve three-dimensional radiative transfer in emitting, absorbing and linear-anisotropic scattering finite cylindrical media. This scheme effectively avoids an integral singularity in the coupled Fredholm type integral equations of radiative transfer. The scheme leads to faster and more accurate results, which are needed in combined mode and non-gray problems. The calculated incident radiation and heat fluxes agree well with published results by discrete ordinates method. Using the transformed integral equations, the effects of boundary emission and reflection can also be easily handled.     

漫反射各向异性散射介质内的温度热流场

本文采用射线踪迹结合节点分析法和谱带模型,研究了漫反射不透明边界下吸收、发射、各向异性散射介质内的热辐射传递过程。考虑介质辐射能的入射和散射方向,导出漫反射、不透明边界、各向异性散射介质的辐射传递系数。在辐射平衡的情况下,考察了表面发射率和散射反照率对介质内辐射热流和温度场的影响。研究表明,介质不透明边界处存在温度跃迁现象,而且,内界面发射率越大,相应界面温度跃迁越小。     

Radiative heat transfer in axisymmetric domains of complex shape with Fresnel boundaries

A detailed study of the peculiarities of the radiative heat transfer (RHT) in axisymmetric domains bounded with Fresnel surfaces is undertaken. The analytical (exact) solutions of the RHT problem in conical and cylindrical domains with refractive index more than unity were obtained for a variety of absorption coefficient and geometrical parameters of the domains. It is shown that due to Fresnel reflections the net radiative flux strongly varies over the base of cone and cylinder. The difference in RHT processes for the cases of constant reflectivity of the boundaries and that calculated by Fresnel formula is demonstrated. The influence of specular reflection at the crystal side surface on the shape of the solid/liquid interface in growing bismuth germanate crystals is shown.     

Thermal field simulation and heat zone optimization for the growth of 50-mm basal-plane-faceted sapphire ribbons

The global heat transfer during growth of 50-mm basal-plane-faced sapphire ribbons in a cylindrical heat zone has been numerically simulated for different heat shield configurations. The ribbon thermoelastic strains were computated to estimate the heat zone quality. It is shown that shield adjustment and redistribution of radiative heat fluxes inside the heat zone make it possible to essentially decrease the thermal field curvature in the ribbon around the crystallization front and, therefore, decrease the thermoelastic strains by a factor of 2 to 3 (to 20 MPa).     

Prediction of radiative heat transfer in 2D irregular geometries using the collocation spectral method based on body-fitted coordinates

Recently, an efficient numerical method, which is called the collocation spectral method (CSM), for radiative heat transfer problems, has been proposed by the present authors. In this numerical method there exists the exponential convergence rate, which can obtain a very high accuracy even using a small number of grids. In this article, the CSM based on body-fitted coordinates (BFC) is extended to simulate radiative heat transfer problems in participating medium confined in 2D complex geometries. This numerical method makes simultaneously the use of the merits of both the CSM and BFC. In this numerical approach, the radiative transfer equation (RTE) in orthogonal Cartesian coordinates should be transformed into the equation in body-fitted nonorthogonal curvilinear coordinates. In order to test the efficiency of the developed method, several 2D complex irregular enclosures with curved boundaries and containing an absorbing, emitting and scattering medium are examined. The results obtained by the CSM are assessed by comparing the predictions with those in references. These comparisons indicate that the CSM based on BFC can be recommended as a good option to solve radiative heat transfer problems in complex geometries.     

用Monte-Carlo法计算直接辐射交换面积

提出求解直接辐射交换面积的Monte-Carlo方法,并编制相应的程序对充满均相吸收介质的封闭方腔内各区域间的直接辐射交换面积进行了计算,与分析计算结果进行了比较。     

The influence of numerical diffusion on the solution of the radiative transfer equations

We investigate the explicit numerical solution strategies of multi-dimensional radiative transfer equations which are commonly used, e.g., to determine the radiation emerging from astrophysical objects surrounded by absorbing and scattering matter. For explicit grid solvers, we identify numerical diffusion as a severe source of error in first-order discretization schemes, underestimated in former work about radiative transfer. Using the simple example of a beam propagating through vacuum, we illustrate the influence of the diffusion on the solution and discuss various techniques to reduce it. In view of the large required storage for implicit solvers, we propose to use second-order explicit grid techniques to solve 3D radiative transfer problems.     

Finite element method for modeling radiative transfer in semitransparent graded index cylindrical medium

Both Galerkin finite element method (GFEM) and least squares finite element method (LSFEM) are developed and their performances are compared for solving the radiative transfer equation of graded index medium in cylindrical coordinate system (RTEGC). The angular redistribution term of the RTEGC is discretized by finite difference approach and after angular discretization the RTEGC is formulated into a discrete-ordinates form, which is then discretized based on Galerkin or least squares finite element approach. To overcome the RTEGC-led numerical singularity at the origin of cylindrical coordinate system, a pole condition is proposed as a special mathematical boundary condition. Compared with the GFEM, the LSFEM has very good numerical properties and can effectively mitigate the nonphysical oscillation appeared in the GFEM solutions. Various problems of both axisymmetry and nonaxisymmetry, and with medium of uniform refractive index distribution or graded refractive index distribution are tested. The results show that both the finite element approaches have good accuracy to predict the radiative heat transfer in semitransparent graded index cylindrical medium, while the LSFEM has better numerical stability.