ABE 40 – THERMODYNAMICS

AND HEAT TRANSFER

FUNDAMENTALS OF
THERMAL RADIATION
OBJECTIVES
 Classify electromagnetic radiation, and identify thermal radiation
 Understand the idealized blackbody, and calculate the total and spectral blackbody emissive
power
 Calculate the fraction of radiation emitted in a specified wavelength band using the blackbody
radiation functions
 Understand the concept of radiation intensity, and define spectral directional quantities using
intensity
 Develop a clear understanding of the properties emissivity, absorptivity, reflectivity, and
transmissivity on spectral and total basis
 Apply Kirchhoff law’s to determine the absorptivity of a surface when its emissivity is known
 Model the atmospheric radiation by the use of an effective sky temperature, and appreciate
the importance of greenhouse effect

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 INTRODUCTION
 The hot object in vacuum chamber will eventually cool down and reach thermal equilibrium with its
surroundings by a heat transfer mechanism: radiation.
 Radiation differs from conduction and convection in that it does not require the presence of a material
medium to take place.
 Radiation transfer occurs in solids as well as liquids and gases.

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 Accelerated charges or changing electric currents give rise to electric and magnetic fields. These rapidly
moving fields are called electromagnetic waves or electromagnetic radiation, and they represent the energy
emitted by matter as a result of the changes in the electronic configurations of the atoms or molecules.
 Electromagnetic waves transport energy just like other waves and they are characterized by their frequency 
or wavelength . These two properties in a medium are related by

c = c0 /n
c, the speed of propagation of a wave in that medium
c0 = 2.9979108 m/s, the speed of light in a vacuum
n, the index of refraction of that medium
n =1 for air and most gases, n = 1.5 for glass, and n = 1.33 for water
 It has proven useful to view electromagnetic radiation as the propagation of a collection of discrete packets
of energy called photons or quanta.
 In this view, each photon of frequency n is considered to have an energy of

The energy of a photon is inversely

proportional to its wavelength.

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 THERMAL RADIATION
 The type of electromagnetic radiation that is pertinent to heat transfer is
the thermal radiation emitted as a result of energy transitions of
molecules, atoms, and electrons of a substance.
 Temperature is a measure of the strength of these activities at the
microscopic level, and the rate of thermal radiation emission increases
with increasing temperature.
 Thermal radiation is continuously emitted by all matter whose
temperature is above absolute zero.

Everything
around us
constantly
emits thermal
radiation.

The
electromagnetic
wave spectrum.
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 Light is simply the visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that lies between 0.40 and 0.76 m.

 A body that emits some radiation in the visible

range is called a light source.
 The sun is our primary light source.
 The electromagnetic radiation emitted by the sun
is known as solar radiation, and nearly all of it
falls into the wavelength band 0.3–3 m.
 Almost half of solar radiation is light (i.e., it falls
into the visible range), with the remaining being
ultraviolet and infrared.

 The radiation emitted by bodies at room temperature falls into the infrared region of the spectrum, which
extends from 0.76 to 100 m.
 The ultraviolet radiation includes the low-wavelength end of the thermal radiation spectrum and lies
between the wavelengths 0.01 and 0.40 m. Ultraviolet rays are to be avoided since they can kill
microorganisms and cause serious damage to humans and other living beings.
 About 12 percent of solar radiation is in the ultraviolet range. The ozone (O3) layer in the atmosphere acts
as a protective blanket and absorbs most of this ultraviolet radiation.

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 In heat transfer studies, we are interested in the energy
emitted by bodies because of their temperature only.
Therefore, we limit our consideration to thermal radiation.

 The electrons, atoms, and molecules of all solids, liquids, and

gases above absolute zero temperature are constantly in
motion, and thus radiation is constantly emitted, as well as
being absorbed or transmitted throughout the entire volume
of matter.
 That is, radiation is a volumetric phenomenon.

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 BLACKBODY RADIATION
 Different bodies may emit different amounts of radiation per unit surface area.
 A blackbody emits the maximum amount of radiation by a surface at a given temperature.
 It is an idealized body to serve as a standard against which the radiative properties of real surfaces may be
compared.
 A blackbody is a perfect emitter and absorber of radiation.
 A blackbody absorbs all incident radiation, regardless of wavelength and direction.

The radiation energy emitted by a blackbody:

Blackbody emissive power

Stefan–Boltzmann constant

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Spectral blackbody emissive power:

The amount of radiation energy emitted by a blackbody at a

thermodynamic temperature T per unit time, per unit surface area,
and per unit wavelength about the wavelength .

Planck’s
law

Boltzmann’s constant

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 The wavelength at which the
peak occurs for a specified
temperature is given by Wien’s
displacement law:

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Observations from the Figure
 The emitted radiation is a continuous function of wavelength. At any specified temperature, it
increases with wavelength, reaches a peak, and then decreases with increasing wavelength.
 At any wavelength, the amount of emitted radiation increases with increasing temperature.
 As temperature increases, the curves shift to the left to the shorter wavelength region.
Consequently, a larger fraction of the radiation is emitted at shorter wavelengths at higher
temperatures.
 The radiation emitted by the sun, which is considered to be a blackbody at 5780 K (or roughly
at 5800 K), reaches its peak in the visible region of the spectrum. Therefore, the sun is in
tune with our eyes.
 On the other hand, surfaces at T < 800 K emit almost entirely in the infrared region and thus
are not visible to the eye unless they reflect light coming from other sources.

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RADIATION INTENSITY

 Radiation is emitted by all parts of a plane

surface in all directions into the hemisphere
above the surface, and the directional
distribution of emitted (or incident) radiation is
usually not uniform.
 Therefore, we need a quantity that describes
the magnitude of radiation emitted (or
incident) in a specified direction in space.
 This quantity is radiation intensity, denoted by
I.

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Solid Angle

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Intensity of Emitted Radiation

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Incident Radiation

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Radiosity

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Spectral Quantities

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 RADIATIVE PROPERTIES
 Most materials encountered in practice, such as metals, wood, and bricks, are opaque to thermal radiation, and
radiation is considered to be a surface phenomenon for such materials.
 Radiation through semitransparent materials such as glass and water cannot be considered to be a surface
phenomenon since the entire volume of the material interacts with radiation.
 A blackbody can serve as a convenient reference in describing the emission and absorption characteristics of real
surfaces.

Emissivity
 Emissivity: The ratio of the radiation emitted by the surface at a given temperature to the radiation emitted by a
blackbody at the same temperature. 0    1.
 Emissivity is a measure of how closely a surface approximates a blackbody ( = 1).
 The emissivity of a real surface varies with the temperature of the surface as well as the wavelength and the
direction of the emitted radiation.
 The emissivity of a surface at a specified wavelength is called spectral emissivity . The emissivity in a specified
direction is called directional emissivity  where  is the angle between the direction of radiation and the normal
of the surface.

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 spectral
directional
emissivity
total
directional
emissivity

spectral
hemispherical
emissivity

total
hemispherical
emissivity

The ratio of the total radiation energy

emitted by the surface to the radiation
emitted by a blackbody of the same
surface area at the same temperature

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 A surface is said to be diffuse if its properties are independent of direction, and gray if its
properties are independent of wavelength.
 The gray and diffuse approximations are often utilized in radiation calculations.

 is the
angle
measured
from the
normal of
the surface

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The variation of normal emissivity with (a)
wavelength and (b) temperature for various
materials.

In radiation analysis, it is
common practice to assume Typical ranges
the surfaces to be diffuse of emissivity
emitters with an emissivity for various
equal to the value in the materials.
normal ( = 0) direction. 30
 Irradiation, G:
Radiation flux
incident on a
surface.

Absorptivity,
Reflectivity, and
Transmissivity

for opaque surfaces

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 spectral spectral directional
hemispherical absorptivity
absorptivity
spectral
hemispherical
reflectivity spectral directional
reflectivity
spectral
hemispherical
transmissivity
G: the spectral irradiation, W/m2m

Average absorptivity, reflectivity, and

transmissivity of a surface:

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 In practice, surfaces are assumed to reflect in a perfectly specular or diffuse manner.
 Specular (or mirrorlike) reflection: The angle of reflection equals the angle of incidence of the radiation beam.
 Diffuse reflection: Radiation is reflected equally in all directions.

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Kirchhoff’s Law

Kirchhoff’s law

The total hemispherical emissivity of

a surface at temperature T is equal
to its total hemispherical absorptivity
for radiation coming from a
blackbody at the same temperature.

spectral form of
Kirchhoff’s law

The emissivity of a surface at a specified wavelength, direction, and

temperature is always equal to its absorptivity at the same wavelength,
direction, and temperature.
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The Greenhouse Effect
 Glass has a transparent window in the wavelength range 0.3 m <  < 3 m in which over 90% of solar radiation is
emitted. The entire radiation emitted by surfaces at room temperature falls in the infrared region ( > 3 m).
 Glass allows the solar radiation to enter but does not allow the infrared radiation from the interior surfaces to
escape. This causes a rise in the interior temperature as a result of the energy buildup in the car.
 This heating effect, which is due to the nongray characteristic of glass (or clear plastics), is known as the
greenhouse effect.

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 ATMOSPHERIC AND SOLAR RADIATION
Atmospheric radiation: The radiation energy emitted or reflected by the constituents of the atmosphere.

 The energy of the sun is due to the continuous fusion reaction

during which two hydrogen atoms fuse to form one atom of helium.
 Therefore, the sun is essentially a nuclear reactor, with
temperatures as high as 40,000,000 K in its core region.
 The temperature drops to about 5800 K in the outer region of the
sun, called the convective zone, as a result of the dissipation of this
energy by radiation.

Total solar irradiance Gs:

The solar energy reaching
the earth’s atmosphere is
called the
Solar constant: The total solar irradiance. It
represents the rate at which solar energy is
incident on a surface normal to the sun’s rays
at the outer edge of the atmosphere when the
earth is at its mean distance from the sun 36
 The value of the total solar irradiance can be used to estimate The sun can be treated
the effective surface temperature of the sun from the requirement as a blackbody at a
that temperature of 5780 K.

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 The solar energy incident on a surface on Direct solar radiation GD: The part of solar radiation
earth is considered to consist of direct and that reaches the earth’s surface without being scattered
diffuse parts. or absorbed by the atmosphere.
Diffuse solar radiation Gd: The scattered radiation is
assumed to reach the earth’s surface uniformly from all
directions.
The total solar energy incident on the unit area of a
horizontal surface on the ground is

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 it is found convenient in radiation calculations to treat the atmosphere as a blackbody at some lower fictitious
temperature that emits an equivalent amount of radiation energy.
 This fictitious temperature is called the effective sky temperature Tsky.
 The radiation emission from the atmosphere to the earth’s surface is

The value of Tsky depends on the atmospheric

conditions. It ranges from about 230 K for cold,
clear-sky conditions to about 285 K for warm,
cloudy-sky conditions.

Net rate of radiation heat transfer to a surface

exposed to solar and atmospheric radiation

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 The absorption and emission of radiation by the elementary
gases such as H2, O2, and N2 at moderate temperatures are
negligible, and a medium filled with these gases can be treated
as a vacuum in radiation analysis.
 The absorption and emission of gases with larger molecules
such as H2O and CO2, however, can be significant and may
need to be considered when considerable amounts of such
gases are present in a medium.
 For example, a 1-m-thick layer of water vapor at 1 atm
pressure and 100°C emits more than 50 percent of the energy
that a blackbody would emit at the same temperature.

The radiation properties of surfaces are quite

different for the incident and emitted radiation, and
the surfaces cannot be assumed to be gray.
Instead, the surfaces are assumed to have two sets
of properties: one for solar radiation and another for
infrared radiation at room temperature.

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 What we call renewable energy is usually nothing
more than the manifestation of solar energy in
different forms.
 Such energy sources include wind energy,
hydroelectric power, ocean thermal energy, ocean
wave energy, and wood.
 For example, no hydroelectric power plant can
generate electricity year after year unless the water
evaporates by absorbing solar energy and comes
back as a rainfall to replenish the water source.
 Although solar energy is sufficient to meet the entire
energy needs of the world, currently it is not
economical to do so because of the low
concentration of solar energy on earth and the high
capital cost of harnessing it.

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