Radiant heat transfer in participating media bounded by reflecting surfaces

Abstract

Transport of thermal radiation within an emitting, absorbing and scattering plane grey medium bounded by specularly- or diffusely-reflecting plates is investigated. The physical situation can simulate steady-state and accident conditions in nuclear reactor components, such as the gap in a fuel rod or the Ar cover gas blanket in LMFBRs. The integral transfer equation is solved in semi-analytical form by a collocation method, using Chebyshev polynomials as basis functions. Numerical results are presented and briefly discussed; the predictions for radiative heat flux and temperature are shown to be accurate over a large range of optical depths.