Modeling of radiative heat transfer in 3D complex boiler with non-gray sooting media

The radiative heat transfer problem is solved for 3D complex industrial boiler with five baffles containing a mixture of carbon dioxide and water vapor for non-uniform temperature fields. A numerical formulation using the FTn finite volume method coupled with the bounded high-order resolution CLAM scheme, the blocked-off-region procedure and the narrow-band based weighted-sum-of-gray-gases (WSGG) [Kim OJ, Song T-H. Data base of WSGGM-based spectral model for radiation properties of combustion products, JQSRT 2000; 64: 379-94] model is adapted. The effect of soot volumetric fraction, particle temperature and uniform particle concentration on the radiative heat flux and radiative heat source is investigated and discussed. Also the advantages, in non-gray media, of the FTnFVM compared to the classical FVM are highlighted.     

Numerical solution of radiative and conductive heat transfer in concentric spherical and cylindrical media

A new technique is presented to improve the performance of the discrete ordinates method when solving the coupled conduction-radiation problems in spherical and cylindrical media. In this approach the angular derivative term of the discretized one-dimensional radiative transfer equation is derived from an expansion of the radiative intensity on the basis of Chebyshev polynomials. The set of resulting differential equations, obtained by the application of the S_N method, is numerically solved using the boundary value problem with the finite difference algorithm. Results are presented for the different independent parameters. Numerical results obtained using the Chebyshev transform method compare well with the benchmark approximate solutions. Moreover, the new technique can easily be applied to higher-order S_N calculations.     

Numerical simulation of radiative heat transfer from non-gray gases in three-dimensional enclosures

The discrete ordinates and the discrete transfer methods are applied to the numerical simulation of radiative heat transfer from non-gray gases in three-dimensional enclosures. Several gas radiative property models are used, namely the correlated k-distribution (CK), the spectral line-based weighted-sum-of-gray-gases (SLW) and the weighted-sum-of-gray-gases (WSGG) methods. The results are compared with recently published accurate calculations based on the statistical narrow band model. The WSGG model is computationally efficient, but often yields relatively large errors. It should be used only if moderate accuracy is sufficient. The SLW model is the best alternative regarding the compromise between accuracy and numerical efficiency. However, an optimization of the coefficients of the model is essential to reduce the computational requirements, especially in the case of gas mixtures. The CK model is the most accurate of the methods evaluated here, but too time consuming for engineering applications, although recent developments may partly overcome this shortcoming.     

Development of a finite element model for coupled radiative and conductive heat transfer in participating media

Considering the geometrical applicability, a finite element model (FEM) for coupled radiative-conductive heat transfer has been developed which is applicable to enclosures of arbitrary geometry in present research. The present work provides a solution of coupled heat transfer in a rectangular, cylindrical or annulus enclosure with black or gray walls containing an absorbing-emitting-scattering medium. It is also applied to study the influence of conductive/radiation coefficient, albedo and wall emissivity on the temperature distribution in the medium. Compared with the results available in other references, the present FEM has no limitation with respect to geometry and can predict the coupled radiative-conductive heat transfer in participating media accurately.     

Coupled radiative and conductive heat transfer in a non-grey absorbing and emitting semitransparent media under collimated radiation

This paper deals with heat transfer in non-grey semitransparent two-dimensional sample. Considering an homogeneous purely absorbing medium, we calculated the temperature field and heat fluxes of a material irradiated under a specific direction. Coupled radiative and conductive heat transfer were considered. The radiative heat transfer equation (RTE) was solved using a S₈ quadrature and a discrete ordinate method. Reflection and absorption coefficients of the medium were calculated with the silica optical properties. The conduction inside the medium was linked to the RTE through the energy conservation. Validation of the model and two original cases are also presented.     

Transient conductive and radiative transfer in a planar layer with Arrhenius heat generation

Transient conductive and radiative energy transfer in a gray absorbing-emitting planar medium bounded by black walls is studied. The temperature distribution is uniform when the medium starts releasing energy according to the Arrhenius equation. The Crank-Nicolson method is used in the radiative-dominant case with good accuracy. Time-dependent temperature and heat flux distributions are calculated until steady-state is reached. Confirmation of the solution technique is made by comparison with previous investigations. The dimensionless activation energy required for ignition varies from 4.1 for pure conduction to 7.5 for pure radiation.     

Transient coupled radiative and conductive heat transfer in a semitransparent layer of ceramic

This work considers transient radiative and conductive heat transfer in a semitransparent layer of ceramic, submitted to several thermal and radiative boundary conditions. Each side of the layer is exposed to hot or cold radiative surroundings, while each boundary is heated or cooled by convection. The solution procedure must provide accurate temperature distribution in the layer, so a nodal analysis based on Hottel's zonal method extended by ray tracing method is carried out. A finite difference method with non-uniform space and time increments is used to solve the transient energy equation, including a radiative heat source, coupled to a equation of radiative transfer. Variable spacing was used to concentrate grid points in regions with large temperature gradients. The influence of refractive index, optical thicknesses and conduction-radiation parameters is investigated.     

Meshless approach for coupled radiative and conductive heat transfer in one-dimensional graded index medium

A meshless local Petrov-Galerkin (MLPG) approach is employed for solving the coupled radiative and conductive heat transfer in a one-dimensional slab with graded index media. The angular distribution term in discrete ordinate equation of radiative transfer within a one-dimensional graded index slab is discretized by a step scheme, and the meshless approach for radiative transfer is based on the discrete ordinate equation. A moving least-squares approximation is used to construct the shape function. Two particular test cases for coupled radiative and conductive heat transfer within a one-dimensional graded index slab are examined to verify this new approximate method. The temperatures and the radiative heat fluxes are obtained. The results are compared with the other benchmark approximate solutions. By comparison, the results show that the MLPG approach has a good accuracy in solving the coupled radiative and conductive heat transfer in one-dimensional graded index media.     

Second-order two-scale computations for conductive radiative heat transfer problem in periodic porous materials

In this paper, a kind of second-order two-scale （SOTS） computation is developed for conductive-radiative heat trans- fer problem in periodic porous materials. First of all, by the asymptotic expansion of the temperature field, the cell problem, homogenization problem, and second-order correctors are obtained successively. Then, the corresponding finite element al- gorithms are proposed. Finally, some numerical results are presented and compared with theoretical results. The numerical results of the proposed algorithm conform with those of the FE algorithm well, demonstrating the accuracy of the present method and its potential applications in thermal engineering of porous materials.     

Discrete ordinates interpolation method for radiative heat transfer problems in three-dimensional enclosures filled with non-gray or scattering medium

The discrete ordinates interpolation method (DOIM) is applied to three groups of problems of radiative heat transfer in three-dimensional rectangular enclosures containing non-gray or scattering medium. The original DOIM is first extended to a gray gas model using a new geometric interpolation scheme. It is applied to participating media for different scattering phase functions and optical thicknesses. For the non-gray gas model, the DOIM coupled with the narrow band-based weighted-sum-of-gray-gases (WSGG) model is developed. A few test problems with real gases such as pure H₂O and a mixture of CO₂, H₂O and N₂ are taken. The wall heat flux is calculated and compared with the exact solutions or reference values. All results of test problems are found to be reliable in this study. The DOIM closely reproduces the Monte Carlo reference solutions for different scattering phase functions and optical thicknesses. The non-gray gas results are compared with reference calculations based on the statistical narrow band model and they also show good agreements. The DOIM shows a remarkable merit in the computation time and the grid compatibility, to prove its usefulness for engineering applications.     

Least-squares collocation meshless approach for radiative heat transfer in absorbing and scattering media

A least-squares collocation meshless method is employed for solving the radiative heat transfer in absorbing, emitting and scattering media. The least-squares collocation meshless method for radiative transfer is based on the discrete ordinates equation. A moving least-squares approximation is applied to construct the trial functions. Except for the collocation points which are used to construct the trial functions, a number of auxiliary points are also adopted to form the total residuals of the problem. The least-squares technique is used to obtain the solution of the problem by minimizing the summation of residuals of all collocation and auxiliary points. Three numerical examples are studied to illustrate the performance of this new solution method. The numerical results are compared with the other benchmark approximate solutions. By comparison, the results show that the least-squares collocation meshless method is efficient, accurate and stable, and can be used for solving the radiative heat transfer in absorbing, emitting and scattering media.     

Effect of anisotropic scattering on radiative heat transfer in two-dimensional rectangular media

Effect of scattering on radiative heat transfer in two-dimensional rectangular media by the finite-volume method has been studied. Compared with the existing solutions, it shows that the result obtained by the finite-volume method is reliable. Furthermore, relative errors caused by the approximation that linear and nonlinear anisotropic scattering media is simplified to isotropic scattering media have been studied.     

Application of the spatial averaging theorem to radiative heat transfer in two-phase media

The spatial averaging theorem is applied to rigorously derive continuum-scale equations of radiative transfer in two-phase media consisting of arbitrary-type phases in the limit of geometrical optics. The derivations are based on the equations of radiative transfer and the corresponding boundary conditions applied at the discrete-scale to each phase, and on the discrete-scale radiative properties of each phase and the interface between the phases. The derivations confirm that radiative transfer in two-phase media consisting of arbitrary-type phases in the range of geometrical optics can be modeled by a set of two continuum-scale equations of radiative transfer describing the variation of the average intensities associated with each phase. Finally, a Monte Carlo based methodology for the determination of average radiative properties is discussed in the light of previous pertinent studies.     

Discontinuous spectral element method for solving radiative heat transfer in multidimensional semitransparent media

A discontinuous spectral element method (DSEM) is presented to solve radiative heat transfer in multidimensional semitransparent media. This method is based on the general discontinuous Galerkin formulation. Chebyshev polynomial is used to build basis function on each element and both structured and unstructured elements are considered. The DSEM has properties such as hp-convergence, local conservation and its solutions are allowed to be discontinuous across interelement boundaries. The influences of different schemes for treatment of the interelement numerical flux on the performance of the DSEM are compared. The p-convergence characteristics of the DSEM are studied. Four various test problems are taken as examples to verify the performance of the DSEM, especially the performance to solve the problems with discontinuity in the angular distribution of radiative intensity. The predicted results by the DSEM agree well with the benchmark solutions. Numerical results show that the p-convergence rate of the DSEM follows exponential law, and the DSEM is stable, accurate and effective to solve multidimensional radiative transfer in semitransparent media.     

Coupling heat conduction and radiative transfer

A method to compute combined heat conduction and radiative transfer in a semitransparent medium is proposed. The heat equation is solved by an implicit finite-difference scheme and the radiation is simulated using a ray-tracing method. Stability and convergence for the coupling of both methods is shown. The crucial point for ray-tracing as well as for discrete-ordinate methods is the selection of the transfer directions and their associated weights. Using a model problem different direction sets proposed in the literature are compared with respect to their accuracy and the computational effort.     

Many-body radiative heat transfer theory

In this Letter, an N-body theory for the radiative heat exchange in thermally nonequilibrated discrete systems of finite size objects is presented. We report strong exaltation effects of heat flux which can be explained only by taking into account the presence of many-body interactions. Our theory extends the standard Polder and van Hove stochastic formalism used to evaluate heat exchanges between two objects isolated from their environment to a collection of objects in mutual interaction. It gives a natural theoretical framework to investigate the photon heat transport properties of complex systems at the mesoscopic scale.     

On the combined heat transfer in the multilayer non-gray porous fibrous insulation

A detailed numerical modeling is performed to investigate coupled heat transfer of natural convection, radiation and conduction in high-temperature multilayer thermal insulation (MTI), which consists of high-porous, non-gray semitransparent fibrous materials and reflective foils. Radiation within fibers, radiation between fibers and the reflective foils, conduction within fibers and convection from the fibers to the surrounding fluid are considered. Macroscopic (porous media) modeling is used to determine velocity, pressure and temperatures fields for fibrous insulation with a random packing geometry under natural convection, whereas the radiative transfer equation (RTE) is used to solve the radiative heat flux for non-gray materials. Key features of the macroscopic model include two-dimensional effects, non-gray radiative exchange, and the relaxation of the local thermodynamic non-equilibrium (LTNE). This model was validated by comparison with experimental data and it was used to investigate natural convection of coupled heat transfer in multilayer insulation, numerical results showed that natural convection is more likely to occur when the heated/cooled rate is low, while natural convection can be ignored in simulating steady-state coupled heat transfer in MTI.     

Theoretical study of combined radiative conductive and convective heat transfer in semi-transparent porous medium in a spherical enclosure

A new method for the solution of the radiative transfer equation in spherical media based on a modified discrete ordinates method is extended to study radiative, conductive and convective heat transfer in a semi-transparent scattering porous medium. The set of differential equations is solved using the fourth-order Runge-Kutta method. Various results are obtained for the case of combined radiative and conductive heat transfer, as well as for the interaction of those modes with convection. The effects of some radiative properties of the medium on the heat transfer rate are examined.     

Radiative heat transfer in a cylindrical mixture of non-gray particulates and molecular gases

The interaction between particulate clouds and molecular gases with respect to radiative heat transfer in a one-dimensional cylindrical medium with black walls is investigated. The particulates are assumed to have a non-gray absorption coefficient with a power-law dependence on wavenumber. The absorption coefficient of the molecular gases is described by the exponential wide-band model. Heat transfer rates are found through the evaluation of internal and external total hemispherical emissivities of the particulate cloud and through evaluation of total band absorptances for the molecular gases, modified to account for the interaction with the particles. Simple, closed-form expressions for the total hemispherical emissivities and total band absorptance are also presented, resulting in good accuracy.     

Radiative heat transfer in a plane-layer mixture of non-gray particulates and molecular gases

The interaction between particulate clouds and molecular gases with respect to radiative heat transfer in a one-dimensional, plane-parallel geometry is investigated. The particulates are assumed to have a non-gray absorption coefficient with a power-law dependence on wavenumber. The absorption coefficient of the molecular gases is described by the popular exponential wide-band model. Heat transfer rates are determined through the evaluation of internal and external slab emissivities of the particulate cloud and through evaluation of slab band absorptances for the molecular gases, modified to account for the interaction with the particles. Simple, closed-form expressions for the slab emissivities and slab absorptances are also introduced, resulting in good accuracy.