Two-dimensional radiative equilibrium of a gray medium between concentric cylinders

A method for calculating radiative equilibrium temperature and surface heat-flux distributions is developed for an absorbing-emitting medium between concentric cylinders. The cylinder walls are assumed to be gray diffuse absorbers and emitters and have arbitrary temperature distributions along their peripheries. Heat generation may take place within the medium. As a first approximation, the problem is solved for optically-thick systems by using the differential approximation. To obtain accurate results also for the optically-thin and intermediate regimes, the differential approximation is subsequently improved by a number of geometric parameters, as has been discussed in a previous paper. As examples, two cares are presented in detail: (1) a hollow cylinder with uniform internal heat generation and uniform surface temperature and (2) a hollow cylinder with a cosine temperature distribution imposed on the wall, with no internal heat generation. Comparison with some numerical results generated by Hottel's zonal method shows excellent agreement.