RADIATION EXCHANGE WITH EMITTING AND ABSORBING GASES

So far, radiation heat transfer between surfaces separated by a medium that does
not emit, absorb, or scatter radiation a non-participating medium that is
completely transparent to thermal radiation - A PERFECT VACUUM or air at ordinary
temperatures and pressures comes very close
Gases that consist of monatomic molecules such Ar and He and symmetric diatomic
molecules such as N
2
and 0
2
are essentially transparent to radiation, except at
extremely high temperatures at which ionisation occurs.
Hence, atmospheric air can be considered to be a non-participating medium in
radiation calculations
Gases with asymmetric molecules such as H
2
0, CO
2
, CO, SO
2
and hydrocarbons H
n
C
m
may participate in the radiation process by absorption at moderate temperatures,
and by absorption and emission at high temperatures such as those encountered in
combustionchambers.
Therefore, air or any other medium that contains such gases with asymmetric
molecules at sufficient concentration must be treated as a participating medium in
radiation calculations
Combustion gases in a furnace or a combustion chamber, for example, contain
sufficient amounts of H
2
0 and CO
2
and thus the emission and absorption of gases in
furnaces must be taken intoconsideration
The presence of a participating medium complicates the radiation analysis
considerably for several reasons:
a participating medium emits and absorbs radiation throughout its entire volume.
That is, gaseous radiation is volumetric phenomena, thus it depends on the
size and the shape of the body. This is the case even if the temperature is
uniformthroughout the medium
Gases emit and absorb radiation at a number of narrow wavelength bands. This is
in contrast to solids, which emit and absorb radiation over the entire
spectrum. Therefore, the gray assumption may not always be appropriate
for a gas even when the surrounding surfaces are gray
The emission and absorption characteristics of the constituents of a gas mixture
also depends on the temperature, pressure and composition of the gas
mixture. Therefore, the presence of other participating gases affects the
radiation characteristics of a particular gas.
We will consider the emission and absorption of radiation by H
2
O and
CO
2
only since they are the participating gases most commonly
encountered in practice (combution products in furnaces and
combustion chambers burning hydrocarbon fuels contain both gases at
high concentrations), and they are sufficient to demonstrate the basic
principles involved
Radiation properties of a participating medium
Consider a participating medium of thickness L. A spectral radiation beam of
intensity I
,0
is incident on the medium, which is attenuated as it propagates due to
absorption. The decrease in the intensity of radiation as it passes through a layer of
thickness dx is proportional to the intensity itself and the thickness dx. This is
known as Beers law.

k
Spectral absorption coefficient of the medium (m
-1
)
( )
( )
} }
= =
=
L
0 x
L
0 x
dx
x I
x dI

k
( ) ( )dx x I x dI

k =
Absorptivity of the medium is assumed to be
independent of x
L
0 ,
L ,
e
I
I

=
Radiation intensity decays exponentially according to Beers law
Spectral transmissivity of a medium is defined as the ratio of the intensity of
radiation leaving the mediumto that entering the medium
L
0 ,
L ,
e
I
I

= =
t

=1when no radiationis absorbed and thus the radiation intensityremains constant

Spectral transmissivity of a medium represents the fraction of radiation transmitted
by the mediumat a given wavelength.
Radiation passing through a non-scattering (and thus non-reflecting)
medium is either absorbed or transmitted. Therefore, o

+ t

=1, and
the spectral absorptivity of a medium of thickness L is
L
e 1 1 1

k

o t o t o

= = = +
From Kirchoffs law, the spectral emissivity of the medium is
L
e 1

k

o c

= =
Note that the spectral absorptivity, transmissivity and emissivity of a medium are
dimensionless quantities, with values less than or equal to 1. The spectral
absorption coefficient of a medium (c

, o

, t

), in general, vary with wavelength,

temperature, pressure and composition.
For an optically thick medium ( a medium with large value of k

L)
0 e e
L
= = =

t t
1 1 = = +

o t o
1 e 1
L
= = = =

k

o c o c
9933 . 0 10 73795 . 6 e ; 5 L
3 5
= = = = =


c o t t k
An optically thick medium emits like a blackbody at the given
wavelength
An optically thick absorbing-emitting medium with no significant
scattering at a given temperature Tg can be viewed as a black surface
at T
g
since it will absorb essentially all the radiation passing through it
and it will emit the maximum possible radiation that can be emitted
by a surface at T
g
, which is E
b
(T
g
)
Emissivity of gases and gas mixtures
Spectral absorptivity of CO
2
at 830 K and 10 atm
for a path length of 38.8 cm
Shape and width of absorption
bands vary with temperature and
pressure, but the magnitude of
absorptivity also varies with the
thickness of the gas layer
Hence, absorptivity values without
specified thickness and pressure
are meaningless
The non-gray nature of properties should be considered in radiation calculations for
high accuracy. This can be done using a band model, and thus performing
calculations for each absorption band. However, satisfactory results can be obtained
by assuming the gas to be gray, and using an effective total absorptivity and
emissivity determined by some averaging process.
Even with gray assumption, the total emissivity and absorptivity of a gas depends
on the geometry of the gas body as well as the temperature, pressure, and
composition.
Gases that participate in radiation exchange such as CO
2
and H
2
O typically coexist
with non-participating gases such as N
2
and O
2
, and thus radiation properties of an
absorbing and emitting gas are usually reported for a mixture of the gas with non-
participatinggases rather than the pure gas.
The emissivity and absorptivity of a gas component in a mixture depends primarily
on its density, which is a function of temperatureand partial pressure of the gas
Emissivity at a total pressure P other than P = 1 atm is determined by multipllying
the emissivity value at 1 atmby a pressure correctionfactor C
w
for water vapour
atm 1 , w w w
C c c =
Note that C
w
= 1 for P = 1 atm and thus (P
w
+ P)/2 ~ 0.5 ( a very low concentration of
water vapour is used in the preparation of the emissivity chart in the figure and thus
Pw is very low)
If the CO
2
and H
2
O gases exist together in a mixture with non-
participating gases
c A c c c + =
w c g
c A c c c + =
atm 1 , w w atm 1 , c c g
C C
Ac is the emissivity correction factor which accounts for the overlap of
emission bands. For a gas mixture that contains both CO
2
and H
2
O
gases, Ac is plotted.
The emissivity of a gas also depends on the mean length an emitted
radiation beam travels in the gas before reaching a bounding surface,
and thus the shape and the size of the gas body involved.
During their experiments in the 1930s, Hottel and his coworkers
considered the emission of radiation from a hemispherical gas body to
a small surface element located at the center of the base of the
hemisphere. Therefore, the given charts represent emissivity data for
the emission of radiation from a hemispherical gas body of radius L
toward the center of the base of the hemisphere.
It is certainly desirable to extend the reported emissivity data to gas
bodies of other geometries, and this is done by introducing the
concept of mean beam length, which represents the radius of
equivalent hemisphere
CONCEPT OF MEAN BEAM LENGTH
Concept of the mean beam length
Consider a hot, isothermal, non-scattering gas volume radiating toward a black area element
dA on its surface.
The spectral heat flux arriving at and absorbed by dA from a volume element is equal to the
spectral emission by dV into all 4t directions the fraction intercepted by dA the fraction
transmitted along the path from dV to dA
Spectral heat flux arriving at dA from all volume elements may be written as
( )
S
V
b
e
S
cos dA
dV I q

k

t
u
tk

|
|
.
|

\
|
=
} 2
4
4
Absorptivity of gases and gas mixtures (Hottels procedure)
Absorptivity of a gas that contains CO
2
and H
2
O gases for radiation emitted by a
source at temperature T
s
can be determined similarly from
o A o o o + =
w c g
Ac = Ao is determined from the emissivity correction figure at the source
temperature T
s.
Absorptivity is assumed to be same as emissivity, hence same charts
may be used.
( )
( )
g s c s w
45 . 0
s
g
w c 2
g s c s c
65 . 0
s
g
c c 2
T / LT P , T
T
T
C O H
T / LT P , T
T
T
C CO
c o
c o

|
|
.
|

\
|
=

|
|
.
|

\
|
=
The notation indicates that the emissivities should be evaluated using T
s
instead of
T
g
, P
c
LT
s
/T
g
instead of P
c
L and P
w
LT
s
/T
g
instead of P
w
L.
Note that the absorptivity of the gas depends on the source temperature T
s
as well
as the gas temperatureT
g
. Also, o = c when T
s
= T
g
, as expected.
The pressure correction factors C
c
and C
w
are evaluated using P
c
L and P
w
L, as in
emissivity calculations.
When the total emissivity of a gas c
g
at temperature Tg is known, the emissive power
of the gas (radiationemittedby the gas per unit surface area) is given by
4
g s g g
T A E o c =
If the bounding surface is black at temperature Ts, the surface will emit radiation to
the gas at a rate of A
s
oT
s
4
without reflecting any, and the gas will absorb this
radiation at a rate of o
g
A
s
oT
s
4
, where o
g
is the absorptivityof the gas.
Then the net rate of radiation heat transfer between the gas and a black surface
surrounding it becomes
If the surface is not black, the analysis becomes more complicated because of the
radiation reflected by the surface. But for surfaces that are nearly black with an
emissivity c
s
> 0.7, Hottel recommends this modification
4
s g
4
g g s
s
black , net
s
gray , net
T T A
2
1
Q
2
1
Q o c o
c c

+
=
+
=

The emissivity of wall surfaces of furnaces and combustion chambers are typically
greater than 0.7, and thus the relation above provides great convenience for
preliminary radiationheat transfer calculations.
4 4
s g g g s net
T T A Q o c o =

Black enclosure
Reconsider the cylindrical furnace in the above example. For a wall temperature of
600 K, determine the absorptivity of the combustion gases and the rate of radiation
heat transfer fromthe combustiongases to the furnace walls.