Cambridge University Engineering Department

Engineering Tripos Part IIA

Module 3A6: Heat and Mass Transfer

Some Notes on Radiation

Dr. Christos Markides

cnm24@cam.ac.uk

Nomenclature:
h
Planks constant [J.s]
co
Speed of light in vacuum [m/s]
k
Boltzmanns constant [J/K]

Stefan-Boltzmann constant [W/m2.K4]

Solid angle [sr]

r
Spherical coordinate system radius [m]
,
Spherical coordinate system angles [rad]
Ar
Area of radiation receiving surface [m2]
As
Area of radiation sending surface [m2]

Radiation wavelength [m]

Emissivity/emittance; proportion/fraction of incident irradiation emitted [-]

Reflectivity/reflectance; proportion/fraction of incident irradiation reflected [-]

Absorptivity/absorptance; proportion/fraction of incident irradiation absorbed [-]

Transmissivity/transmittance; proportion/fraction of incident irradiation transmitted [-]

Q
Generic (radiation/radiative/radiant) (energy flow rate/power) [W]
Q

; generic (radiation/radiative/radiant) flux, or (energy flow rate/power) per unit area [W/m2]

; generic spectral (radiation/radiative/radiant) (energy flow rate/power), or (energy flow rate/power)

per unit wavelength [W/m]

Q
G
G
G
G
J
J

; generic spectral (radiation/radiative/radiant) flux [W/m3]

(Irradiation/irradiance) power [W]
; (irradiation/irradiance) flux, or power per unit receiving area [W/m2]
; spectral (irradiation/irradiance) power, or power per unit wavelength [W/m]
; spectral (irradiation/irradiance) flux [W/m3]
(Radiosity/radiant exitance) power [W]
; (radiosity/radiant exitance) flux, or power per unit sending area [W/m2]

; spectral (radiosity/radiant exitance) power, or power per unit wavelength [W/m]

; spectral (radiosity/radiant exitance) flux [W/m3]

E
E
E

(Emissive/emission) power [W]

; (emissive/emission) flux, or power per unit sending area [W/m2]
; spectral (emissive/emission) power, or power per unit wavelength [W/m]

; spectral (emissive/emission) flux [W/m3]

; (radiation/radiative/radiant) intensity, or power per unit solid angle [W/sr]

I
L
L

; spectral (radiation/radiative/radiant) intensity, or intensity per unit wavelength [W/sr.m]

; radiance, or power per unit area per unit solid angle [W/m2.sr]
; spectral radiance, or radiance per unit wavelength [W/m3.sr]

CNM
12 of March, 2008
th

1. PRELIMINARY
For solid bodies at steady state, we must consider the irradiation onto the surface, and the balance of the radiosity
from the surface, the absorption into the solid and the transmission through the solid, with the irradiation either
being reflected, absorbed or transmitted according to, G = Gr + Ga + Gt, or + + = 1. Reflectance can be diffuse
(independent of angle) or specular (mirror-like; angle of incidence equals angle of reflection).

Radiosity
(J)

Irradiation
(G)

Emission
(E)

Reflected
Irradiation
(Gr = G)
Absorption
(Ga = G)

Transmission
(Gt = G)
Figure 1. Types of radiative heat transfer to, from, into and through a solid surface.
For non-transparent (opaque) solids, the energies must still always balance. There is no radiation being transmitted
through the solid, Gt = 0, or = 0, and hence the irradiation onto the surface must always balance the sum of the
radiosity from the surface and the absorption into the solid, G = Gr + Ga, or + = 1.
The plane angle and solid angle are two derived units in the SI system. The following definitions are taken from NIST:
"The radian is the plane angle between two radii of a circle that cuts off on the circumference an arc equal in length
to the radius". The abbreviation for the radian is rad. There are 2 radians in a circle, i.e. in 360o. The solid angle
extends this concept to three dimensions: "One steradian (sr) is the solid angle that, having its vertex in the centre of
a sphere, cuts off an area on the surface of the sphere equal to that of a square with sides of length equal to the
radius of the sphere". The solid angle is thus defined as the ratio of the spherical area to the square of the radius:

If we divide the surface area of a sphere by the square of its radius, we find that there are 4 steradians of solid
angle in a sphere. One hemisphere has 2 steradians.

1. GENERIC RADIATION (L,rad)

Spectral radiance:

Spectral radiation power:

Spectral radiation flux:

Hemispherical spectral radiation flux:

2. IRRADIATION (L,i)
Hemispherical spectral irradiation flux:

Total irradiation flux:

Diffuse (direction independent) irradiation flux:

3. RADIOSITY (L,e+r = L,e + L,r)

Hemispherical spectral radiosity flux:

Total radiosity flux:

Diffuse (direction independent) radiosity flux:

4. EMMISION (L,e)
Hemispherical spectral emissive flux:

Total emissive flux:

Diffuse (direction independent) emission flux:

5. BLACK BODIES

Think of a deep, closed cavity with a small opening through which radiation (photons) can pass.

The body absorbs all irradiation, reflects none and transmits none.

The body is a diffuse emitter.

The body emits the maximum possible heat for a body at that temperature.

No reflected radiation (no reflected irradiation):

or

, and

or

No transmitted radiation (no transmitted irradiation):

, and

All incident radiation (all irradiation) is absorbed:

, and

or

or

The spectral emission intensity is defined as the black body spectral intensity:
, and

Planks spectral distribution is,

where h and k are Planks and Boltzmanns constants. The final expression is almost redundant, since all heat flow
rates equal heat fluxes multiplied by the radiation sending surface area As. From this point onwards, we will deal
only with fluxes.
This distribution is, clearly, a function of two variables, and T. For a black body at a given temperature, we can find
the wavelength associated with the maximum (peak) emission by partially differentiating this expression with
respect to (while T is kept constant), and setting this equal to zero:

The final expression above is now, conveniently, a function of a single variable, maxT. The exponential term is small,
for all but very high and T (or products of T), as shown in the table below:
T [K]
10

[m]

100

1000

10000

0.01

0.00E+00 0.00E+00 0.00E+00 3.20E-63

0.1

0.00E+00 0.00E+00 3.20E-63 5.63E-07

0.00E+00 3.20E-63 5.63E-07 2.37E-01

10

3.20E-63 5.63E-07 2.37E-01

Table 1. The value of

for various and T.

Note that max is usually a short wavelength, becoming even shorter as T increases for the same value of maxT.
Then, the Wien displacement law states that, approximately:

Similarly, the Wien distribution law is a simplification to Planks spectral distribution, based on the value of the
exponential term being much greater than unity, which occurs when
, or
, as discussed in
the preceding sections:

Four more expressions that you might encounter are,

and:

These expressions are convenient, more so than the previous ones, because (as with the final expression for the
peak emission wavelength, max) the two independent variables always appear paired together. So, we can think of
T as a single variable, and tabulate values of the expressions for various values of T.

The Stefan-Boltzmann law is,

where is the Stefan-Boltzmann constant.

The Stefan-Boltzmann law is obtained by integration over all wavelengths (frequencies). Physically, this means that
the black body is able to emit (a heat flow rate according to Planks spectral distribution, or the Wien distribution
law) at all wavelengths.

Many bodies actually only emit over a limited band of wavelengths. To describe this we define band emission to
be,

where the values of

can also be found in tables. Here,

or the Wien distribution law:

6. REAL SURFACES

Emissivity:

Directionally averaged emissivity:

Total hemispherical emissivity:

can be either from Planks spectral distribution,

Absorptivity:

Reflectivity:

Transmissivity:

Irradiance, absorption, reflection and transmission:

Absorptivity, reflectivity and transmissivity:

Opaque media have:

, and

Kirchoffs law:

7. GRAY SURFACES

Given diffuse irradiation and emission, and from Kirchoffs law:

In addition, if either: (i) and are independent of as well, and hence constants, or (ii) the irradiation field
corresponds to that of a black body at the same temperature T as the surface, then,

the latter coming from the fact that for these two surfaces,
,

but also the definitions of , , and :

This relationship applies for any range of wavelengths:

8. VIEW FACTORS
Surface i emits radiative intensity Li, part of which will reach surface j,

and for a diffuse surface i:

The term

can be thought of as the common projection of the solid angle area associated with

surface j and surface area of surface i along the direction of a straight line joining the two.
Integrating for the total heat flow rate from i to j,

and for a diffuse surface i over which Ji is uniform over the surface areas:

Similarly, the heat flow rate from surface j to surface i is:

Hence, define the view factor as,

such that the reciprocity relation below, holds:

The net heat flow rate from surface i to surface j is:

9. RADIATION EXCHANGE FROM SURFACES

We consider now the radiative heat transfer to and from a gray body. Assume that the surface of the body is uniform
in temperature, and that all its emissive and reflective properties are also uniform. Furthermore, assume that the
heat fluxes are also uniform over the surface, and that the surface is diffuse.
We return to Figure 1.
Radiosity
(J)

Irradiation
(G)

Emission
(E)

Reflected
Irradiation
(Gr = G)
Absorption
(Ga = G)

Transmission
(Gt = G)
The net power from the surface is equal to the radiosity minus the irradiation:

Now, the radiosity is made up of emission and reflected irradiation,

so that:

If there is no transmission, = 0, and if = , + = 1. The equation above for the net power becomes,

or, in terms of the net flux:

10. RADIATIVE HEAT TRANSFER RESISTANCE NETWORKS

Finally, we must approach the problem of radiative heat transfer between two or more bodies. We return to the two
bold equations for the net Q from a surface i to a surface j in terms of the view factor and the emissivities of the
surfaces. They both look identical to Ohms law for electrical resistance networks, if one is careful to employ, Ji, Jj and
Eb as potentials and the expressions in the denominators as the resistances, as illustrated below:

Eb1 = T14

J1

J2

Eb2 = T24

Figure 2. Full, radiative heat transfer between two surfaces.

The above is the standard way of approaching the full, radiative heat transfer between two surfaces. For three
surfaces:

Eb1 = T14

J1

J2

I1

I2

J3

Eb3 = T34
Figure 3. Full, radiative heat transfer between three surfaces.
Three simplifications can be made. Depending on the physical situation of the heat transfer:
1. If one of the three bodies is black, e.g. 3, then 3 = 1, and consequently Eb3 = J3.

Eb2 = T24

2. Similarly, if one of the bodies is insulated such that an adiabatic boundary condition applies, e.g. 3, then no
heat flow/current can flow out of the circuit at Eb3, no current can flow through R3, and hence Eb3 = J3.
3. If one the bodies is a perfect reflector, e.g. 3, then 3 = 0, and there can be no current though R3, because
R3 is infinite, even though Eb3 J3. The current flowing from J1 to J3, gets completely diverted towards J2.
In all of the above cases, the current through the two view-factor resistances must be equal, I1 = I2.
Note that, for the above approach to be valid, our assumptions of all surfaces being gray, diffuse, uniform in
temperature, with uniform emissive and reflective properties, and uniform heat fluxes over those surfaces, must
hold.