Development of hybrid method for coupled conduction-radiation heat transfer in two-dimensional irregular enclosure considering thermo-radiative effects and varying thermal conductivity

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to perform a comprehensive investigation to model the thermal characteristics of a coupled conduction-radiation heat transfer in a two-dimensional irregular enclosure including a triangular-shaped heat source.

Design/methodology/approach

For this purpose, a promising hybrid technique based on the concepts of blocked-off method, FVM and DOM is developed. The enclosure consists of several horizontal, vertical and oblique walls, and thermal conductivity within the enclosure varies directly with temperature and indirectly with position. To simplify the complex geometry, a promising mathematical model is introduced using blocked-off method. Emitting, absorbing and non-isotropic scattering gray are assumed as the main radiative characteristics of the steady medium.

Findings

DOM and FVM are, respectively, applied for solving radiative transfer equation (RTE) and the energy equation, which includes conduction, radiation and heat source terms. The temperature and heat flux distributions are calculated inside the enclosure. For validation, results are compared with previous data reported in the literature under the same conditions. Results and comparisons show that this approach is highly efficient and reliable for complex geometries with coupled conduction-radiation heat transfer. Finally, the effects of thermo-radiative parameters including surface emissivity, extinction coefficient, scattering albedo, asymmetry factor and conduction-radiation parameter on temperature and heat flux distributions are studied.

Originality/value

In this paper, a hybrid numerical method is used to analyze coupled conduction-radiation heat transfer in an irregular geometry. Varying thermal conductivity is included in this analysis. By applying the method, results obtained for temperature and heat flux distributions are presented and also validated by the data provided by several previous papers.

Citation

Zare, M. and Sadeghi, S. (2020), "Development of hybrid method for coupled conduction-radiation heat transfer in two-dimensional irregular enclosure considering thermo-radiative effects and varying thermal conductivity", International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, Vol. 30 No. 4, pp. 1815-1837. https://doi.org/10.1108/HFF-11-2018-0667