An Experimental Examination of the Validity of the Commonly Used Methods of Radiant Heat Transfer Analysis

In this work the validity and accuracy of the commonly used methods of radiant heat transfer prediction were checked experimentally. The local irradiation was measured for five different materials in two simple configurations. The materials tested were sand-blasted stainless steel, electropolished stainless steel, rough electroplated gold, smooth electroplated gold, and PV100 white paint. Measurements were made over the temperature range from 50 deg F to 850 deg F for each of four sets of geometric parameters. The predicted values of local incident fluxes using the diffuse, specular, and diffuse-specular models were compared with experimental data. The data agree with the diffuse model within the accuracy of the measurements for all the surfaces tested. Additional conclusions, recommendations, and procedures, which should be followed for more realistic radiant heat transfer calculations, are given in the body of the paper.