PSG COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY

COIMBATORE – 641004

19Y402 – Fluid Mechanics an Heat transfer

Radiation heat transfer

Submitted by,
Mahathi J (22Y118)
Prakash D (22Y203)
Chandru S (23Y433)
 Overview
So far, we have considered the conduction and convection modes of heat transfer, which are related to the
nature of the media involved and the presence of fluid motion, among other things. We now turn our attention
to the third mechanism of heat transfer: radiation, which is characteristically different from the other two. We
start this chapter with a discussion of electromagnetic waves and the electromagnetic spectrum, with particular
emphasis on thermal radiation. Then we introduce the idealized blackbody, blackbody radiation, and blackbody
radiation function, together with the Stefan–Boltzmann law, Planck’s law, and Wien’s displacement law.
Radiation is emitted by every point on a plane surface in all directions into the hemisphere above the surface.
The quantity that describes the magnitude of radiation emitted or incident in a specified direction in space is
the radiation intensity. Various radiation fluxes such as emissive power, irradiation, and radiosity are expressed
in terms of intensity. This is followed by a discussion of radiative properties of materials such as emissivity,
absorptivity, reflectivity, and transmissivity and their dependence on wavelength, direction, and temperature.
The greenhouse effect is presented as an example of the consequences of the wavelength dependence of
radiation properties. 2
 Table of contents

1. Introduction
2. Blackbody radiation 22Y118
3. Planck’s law
4. Wein’s displacement law
5. Thermal radiation
6. Gray body emission 22Y203
7. Green house effect
8. Radiosity
9. Radiative properties
23Y433
10. Kirchhoff's law
3
 Introduction
Consider a hot object that is suspended in an evacuated
chamber whose walls are at room temperature. The hot
object will eventually cool down and reach thermal
equilibrium with its surroundings. That is, it will lose
heat until its temperature reaches the temperature of
the walls of the chamber. Heat transfer between the
object and the chamber could not have taken place by
conduction or convection, occur in a vacuum.
Therefore, because these two mechanisms cannot heat
transfer must have occurred through another
mechanism that involves the emission of the internal
energy of the object. This mechanism is radiation.
4
 Introduction

Radiation differs from the other two heat transfer

mechanisms in that it does not require the presence of
a material medium to take place. In fact, energy
transfer by radiation is fastest (at the speed of light)
and it suffers no attenuation in a vacuum. Also,
radiation transfer occurs in solids as well as liquids
and gases. In most practical applications, all three
modes of heat transfer occur concurrently at varying
degrees. But heat transfer through an evacuated space
can occur only by radiation.

5
 Blackbody radiation A blackbody is defined as a perfect emitter and absorber of

A body at a thermodynamic (or absolute) temperature above radiation. At a specified temperature and wavelength, no

zero emits radiation in all directions over a wide range of surface can emit more energy than a blackbody. A blackbody
absorbs all incident radiation, regardless of wavelength and
wavelengths. The amount of radiation energy emitted from a
direction. Also, a blackbody emits radiation energy
surface at a given wavelength depends on the material of the
uniformly in all directions per unit area normal to direction
body and the condition of its surface as well as the surface
of emission. That is, a blackbody is a diffuse emitter. The
temperature. Therefore, different bodies may emit different
term diffuse means “independent of direction.”
amounts of radiation per unit surface area, even when they are

at the same temperature. Thus, it is natural to be curious about

the maximum amount of radiation that can be emitted by a

surface at a given temperature. Satisfying this curiosity

requires the definition of an idealized body, called a

blackbody, to serve as a standard against which the radiative

properties of real surfaces may be compared. 6

The electromagnetic wave spectrum 7
 (T) = (W/)

where 5.670 x W. is the Stefan–Boltzmann constant and T is the absolute temperature of the surface in K. This
relation was theoretically verified in 1884 by Ludwig Boltzmann. This equation is known as the Stefan–Boltzmann
law and is called the blackbody emissive power. Note that the emission of thermal radiation is proportional to the
fourth power of the absolute temperature.
The Stefan–Boltzmann law in gives the total blackbody emissive power Eb, which is the sum of the radiation emitted
over all wavelengths. Sometimes we need to know the spectral blackbody emissive power, which is the amount of
radiation energy emitted by a blackbody at a thermodynamic temperature T per unit time, per unit surface area, and
per unit wavelength about the wavelength . For example, we are more interested in the amount of radiation an
incandescent light bulb emits in the visible wavelength spectrum than we are in the total amount emitted. The
relation for the spectral blackbody emissive power Ebwas developed by Max Planck in 1901 in conjunction with his
famous quantum theory. This relation is known as Planck’s law and is expressed as,

8
T is the absolute temperature of the surface, is the wavelength of the radiation emitted, and k 5 1.38065 x J/K is
Boltzmann’s constant. This relation is valid for a surface in a vacuum or a gas. For other mediums, it needs to be
modified by replacing C1 by C1/, where n is the index of refraction of the medium. Note that the term spectral
indicates dependence on wavelength.
As the temperature increases, the peak of the curve in shifts toward shorter wavelengths. The wavelength at
which the peak occurs for a specified temperature is given by Wien’s displacement law as

9
The variation of the spectral blackbody emissive power with wavelength is plotted in for selected
temperatures. Several observations can be made from this figure:
1. The emitted radiation is a continuous function of wavelength. At any specified temperature, it increases
with wavelength, reaches a peak, and then decreases with increasing wavelength.
2. At any wavelength, the amount of emitted radiation increases with increasing temperature.
3. As temperature increases, the curves shift to the left to the shorter wavelength region. Consequently, a
larger fraction of the radiation is emitted at shorter wavelengths at higher temperatures.
4. The radiation emitted by the sun, which is considered to be a blackbody at 5780 K (or roughly at 5800 K),
reaches its peak in the visible region of the spectrum. Therefore, the sun is in tune with our eyes. On the
other hand, surfaces at T 800 K emit almost entirely in the infrared region and thus are not visible to the
eye unless they reflect light coming from other sources.

10
 Therefore, we define a dimensionless quantity called the blackbody radiation function as

The function f represents the fraction of radiation emitted from a blackbody at temperature T in the
wavelength band from =0 to . f can be interpreted as the ratio of the shaded region (radiation energy emitted
by the blackbody in the wavelength range 0 - ) over the total area under the curve (total radiation energy
emitted by the blackbody in the wavelength range 0 - ). The values of f are listed as a function of T, where is
in mm and T is in K.

11
 Review questions
1. Define a “perfect black body”
2. Describe how the intensity spectrum of radiation emitted from a colder object differs from the intensity
spectrum of a hotter object.

12
1. Consider a 20-cm-diameter spherical ball at 800 K suspended in air as shown in Fig. 1.
Assuming the ball closely approximates a blackbody, determine (a) the total blackbody emissive
power, (b) the total amount of radiation emitted by the ball in 5 min, and (c) the spectral
blackbody emissive power at a wavelength of 3 m.

13
2. Charge-coupled device (CCD) image sensors, that are common in modern digital cameras, respond differently to light
sources with different spectral distributions. Daylight and incandescent light may be approximated as a blackbody at the
effective surface temperatures of 5800 K and 2800 K, respectively. Determine the fraction of radiation emitted within
the visible spectrum wavelengths, from 0.40 m (violet) to 0.76 (red), for each of the lighting sources

14