An improved zone method using monte carlo techniques for the simulation of radiation in industrial furnaces

Abstract

Calculation procedures are proposed in which the Monte Carlo simulation methods can be conveniently used to compute the view factor matrix entering into Hottel's zone method. Difficulties caused by inherent statistical errors can be eliminated by regression. An empirical formula is proposed for the beam length distribution that enables the total exchange areas to be calculated for any gas absorption model (i.e. which is not restricted to an exponential absorption law) from the view factors in a diatherm medium. By this procedure the multiple integrations required to calculate the view factors are uncoupled from the temperature distributions, so that they need to be calculated only once for a given geometrical configuration. The usefulness and applicability of the procedure is illustrated by a number of examples.