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LECUTRE 31:refractory and Gas Radiation: Key Words: Radiation, View Factor, Gas Radiation, Convection
LECUTRE 31:refractory and Gas Radiation: Key Words: Radiation, View Factor, Gas Radiation, Convection
Key words: Radiation, View factor, Gas radiation, Convection
Thermal role of refractory surface:
Refractory surfaces play an important role in keeping the furnace temperature constant by minimizing
the heat loss to the surrounding. Consider a furnace which is at an average temperature TF and is
TF
enclosed by the refractory. The intensity of radiation striking a refractory surface is 5.67
TF TS
Of this incident radiation, 5.67 R is absorbed and 5.67 1 R is reflected. Here
R is reflectivity. Due to incident flux the refractory surface is heated to a temperature TR and refractory
TR
surface will also emit energy at the rate of 5.67 R W/m . At steady state, heat balance is:
[Heat loss/unit area through the furnace wall to the surroundings = rate of absorption of heat from the
furnace ─ Rate of emission of radiation back into the furnace]
Q TF TR
5.67 R W/m (1)
A
According to equation 1 heat loss to the surrounding depends on the inside surface temperature of the
refractory, furnace and surrounding temperatures and the thermal resistance offered by the refractory
wall. Consider a 0.23m firebrick wall of thermal conductivity 1.731 Wm K at 1273K inner surface
temperature of the refractory. Heat loss per unit area from this wall to the surrounding is calculated to be
7338W/m for the surrounding temperature of 298K. Assuming reflectively of the refractory R 0.8
and heat loss as 7338W/m , furnace temperature can be calculated to be 1292K which is only 19
higher than the inner surface temperature of the refractory. The difference between the inner surface
temperature of the refractory and the furnace temperature can be reduced further by increasing the
thickness of the wall and using refractory of lower thermal conductivity. This calculation suggests that the
inner surface temperature of the refractory wall is close to the average temperature of the furnace.
The role of refractory surface can be illustrated. For the firebrick wall the total incident flux is
126390 W/m . Of this incident flux, 25728 W/m is reflected back into the furnace and 7338 W/m is
lost to the surrounding through the wall of the refractory. The balance 93776 W/m is absorbed and re-
readiated by the refractory back into the furnace. Thus refractory surface is an efficient reflector 75%
but the mechanism of reflection is absorption and re-radiation.
Effect of refractory surface on the heat flow between source and sink:
Consider a system in which three surfaces A , A and AR forms an enclosure as shown in the figure.
Each surface is characterized by its own uniform temperature T , T and TR respectively. Also A and A
surfaces are shaped such that each cannot use itself. The following assumptions are made:
Figure 31.1: A system formed by three surfaces, source sink and refractory. The arrow shows heat flow
path.
1. Enclosure is adiabatic: Refractory surface AR does not allow any heat which means all incident
flux is re‐ radiated or reflected.
2. Surfaces A and A are black.
Heat flows directly from A to A and to AR . As a result of incident radiation, A is heated and also
begins to radiate. Of the total energy leaving from A to A fraction is absorbed by A and is controlled
by F . F is view factor and corresponds to faction of total energy leaving A which is absorbed by
surface2. The remaining fraction 1 F is intercepted by surface AR .
After a while surface A is heated up. Of the total energy leaving the surface A , F is absorbed by
surface A and 1 F is intercepted by AR . F and F are related by
F A F A (2)
A
F F (3)
A
Direct heat exchange between A and A
T T
Q 5.67 A F (4)
T TR
Q R 5.67 1 F A (5)
F A T TR
Q R 5.67 1 A (6)
A
Since there is no heat flow to the refractory q R q R 0. (7)
Equations 4 to 7 can be solved to give
.
A F A T A F A T
TR (8)
A A F A
A F A A F A T T
Q R Q R 5.67 (9)
A A F A
By equation 4, 9 and 10
T T
Q 5.67 FC A (11)
It is to be noted that in the above derivation we have identified furnace to consist of source, sink and
refractory as independent entities and each one is at uniform temperature. However, in practical
situations, it is not very often easy to separate the source, sink and refractory and the temperatures may
be far from uniform. Thus a careful engineering judgment is necessary for accurate calculations.
Effect of emissivity of surfaces
For most general calculations, it is necessary to take into account the effect of emissivities of the source
and sink surfaces. If A and A are not black but gray surfaces with emissivities and
T T
Q 5.67 FA (13)
Where
F A (14)
FC A
Equation 14 reduces to F F when 1
The following procedure may be adopted to calculate the rate of heat transfer between two surfaces
within a furnace:
Gas radiation
In gas radiation, one has to distinguish between the gases which are transparent to radiation and which
emit and absorb radiations. All diatomic gases like nitrogen and oxygen are transparent to radiation that
means they neither emit nor absorb radiation at low temperatures. Whereas, tri‐atomic gases like
CO , H O, SO absorb and emit radiation to a considerable degree so that they are important in heat
exchange
Absorption and emission of gases differ from liquids and solids in the following ways.
i. Gases emit and absorb radiation within a narrow band of wavelength and
ii. Emission and absorption take place through the body of the gas. No. of modules of a gas is
important for radiation. No. of molecules of gas at a given temperature is proportional to
partial pressure of gas and size of the body L of the gas, where.
L 3.5 (15)
.
Heat transfer between gas and enclosure can be given by
. TG TS
Q AG W⁄m (16)
G S
G CO H O.
CO or H O. can be determined as follows.
Flame radiation:
In fuel fired furnaces and other furnaces like reverberatory furnace, the principle mechanism of heat
transfer is from the flame to the charge. The flame consists of the products of combustion. By
considering sink as the surface area of the charge AC and source as the flame of area AFL and assigning
to the flame an equivalent body of gray emissivity G , the rate of heat flow from the flame to the charge
can be written as:
TG TS
Q 5.67AC AC
(17)
C AFL G
G G .
Heat flow from flame to charge for a given area of source and sink, and temperatures of the source and
sink depends on emissivity of the flame. In a non‐luminous flame such as pale blue or visually
transparent flames obtained by burning hydrogen and other gaseous fuels, the radiation and convection
are the principle mechanisms of heat transfer. In combustion of oil and pulverized coal, the flame
contains clouds of fine particles of ash and carbon in addition to the products of combustion. These
particles increases the emissivity of the flame and as a result heat transfer is enhanced. The furnace
operator tries to make the flame luminous over as much length of the furnace as possible. For large
pulverized coal flames, the emissivity could approach to unity which results in maximum rate of heat
flow from the flame to the charge. By putting G 1 in the equation 17, we get the expression for
maximum heat flow:
TF TS
Q 5.67 AC C (18)
According to equation 18, the maximum heat transfer from the flame requires a knowledge of actual
flame temperature in the furnaces.
Reference:
1. D.R. Poirier and G.H. Geiger: transport phenomena in material; processing.
2. R. Schumann: Metallurgical Engineering, volume 1 engineering Principles