Monte Carlo prediction of radiative heat transfer in inhomogeneous, anisotropic, nongray media

Abstract

A Monte Carlo solution technique has been formulated to predict the radiative heat transfer in three-dimensional, inhomogeneous participating media which exhibit spectrally dependent emission and absorption and anisotropic scattering. Details of the technique and selected numerical sensitivities are discussed. The technique was applied to a problem involving a medium composed of a gas mixture of carbon dioxide and nitrogen and suspended carbon particles. A homogeneous medium was modeled to examine the effect of total pressure and carbon-particle concentration on radiative heat transfer. Variation in total pressure, over the range studied, had minimal effect on the amount of heat radiated to the enclosure walls and on the radiative-flux distribution within the medium. Increases in the carbon particle concentration produced significantly higher heat fluxes at the boundaries and altered the radiative flux distribution. The technique was then applied to an inhomogeneous medium to examine effects of specific temperature and carbon particle concentration distributions on radiative heat transfer. For the inhomogeneous conditions examined, the largest radiative flux divergence occurs near the center of the medium and the regions near some enclosure walls act as energy sinks.