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Exact and Mean Beam Length Calculations For Radiative

Heat Transfer in Gases
a
DAVID A. MANDELL
a
Department of Mechanical Engineering , Washington State University , Pullman, Washington
Published online: 21 May 2007.

To cite this article: DAVID A. MANDELL (1974) Exact and Mean Beam Length Calculations For Radiative Heat Transfer in Gases,
Combustion Science and Technology, 9:5-6, 273-276

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00102207408960365

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 Combustion Science and Technology, © Gordon and Breach, Science Publishers Ltd.
1974, Vol. 9, pp. 273-276 Printed in The United Kingdom

SHORT COMMUNICATIO~

Exact and Mean Beam Length Calculations For Radiative

Heat Transfer in Gases
DAVID A. MANDELL t
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington

Abstract-This note examines the validity of the mean beam length technique, which is an approximate engineer-
ing method for calculating radiative heat transfer in furnace gases. Exact and mean beam length results are com-
Downloaded by [Moskow State Univ Bibliote] at 08:25 14 February 2014

pared for laminar flow of carbon monoxide between parallel black surfaces. The results show that the mean beam
length calculations overestimate the heat transfer by 47 per cent. This approximation gives better results than other
approximate techniques used such as the gray gas and optically thin approximations. Further work is needed to
determine the validity of the mean beam length technique in more complicated geometries, and when gas mixtures
are present.

NOMENCLATURE mean beam length, L., and the geometric mean

k thermal conductivity beam length, L o• L. depends upon the temperature,
L plate spacing pressure and absorbing properties of the gas, as
Nu; Nusselt number for conduction, 4.12 well as the geometry of the enclosure (Olfe, 1961).
NUR Nusselt number for radiation Since the calculation of L. is complicated, it appears
qR radiative flux attractive to use the geometric mean beam length,
T, plate temperature L o , which depends only on the geometry of the
TD bulk gas temperature enclosure.
e total gas emissivity
a Stefan-Boltzmann constant THE MEAN BEAM LENGTH

INTRODUCTION The solution of the integrodifferential equation

for conservation of energy in this problem (Cess
The purpose of this note is to examine the validity
and Tiwari, 1967) requires a complicated computer
of the mean beam length technique, which is
program, and therefore it would be desirable to
used to approximate the radiative heat transfer
have a simpler calculation method for engineering
in furnaces (Field et al., 1967). In order to estimate
calculations. The mean beam length technique
the accuracy of the mean beam length technique,
provides a method for hand calculating the radiative
heat transfer results calculated by this method are
heat transfer, once the gas emissivity is known for
compared to exact results obtained by Cess and
thermodynamic conditions under consideration.
Tiwari (1967) for laminar heat transfer flow of CO
The radiative heat flux can be approximated by
contained between black parallel plates.
(Field et al., 1967)
The mean beam length approximation was
introduced by Hottel (McAdams, 1954; Hottel qR = e(L.)a(r: - r:)(1)
and Sarofun, 1967) and has been extensively and, for linearized radiation (Cess and Tiwari,
studied (Tien and Ling, 1969; Olfe, 1961; Tien 1967)
and Wang, 1965a,b; Dunkle, 1964; and Opphen-
4aT~Le(L.)
heim and Bevans, 1960), but comparisons of exact NUR = (2)
and mean beam length calculations have not been k
made, to the author's knowledge. For parallel boundaries the mean beam length is
There are two mean beam lengths in use: the given by (Olfe, 1961)
t Present address, Nuclear Energy Division, General eeL,) = 2L2 rID
e(X) 3dX (3)
Electric Co., San Jose, CA. JL X
 274 SHORT COMMUNICATION

.10 t-----------If--------------j.-----------1

.
>-
Downloaded by [Moskow State Univ Bibliote] at 08:25 14 February 2014

!:::
>
U"l
U"l
~
W

.010 f - - - - - -

T' 1000 K
P = I ATM

DISTANCE. em
FIG. 1. Emissivity and mean beam length results for carbon monoxide.

Since the mean beam length, L" depends upon
the temperature, pressure and absorbing properties
of the gas, as well as the geometry of the enclosure,
the calculations would be greatly simplified if the
geometric mean beam length, L o • could be used.
For parallel boundaries, L o = 2L and the Nusselt
number becomes
Nu = Nu , + 40'T~Le(2L )
----=--'--'-
k
RESULTS
Figure 1 shows carbon monoxide emissivity values
(Abu-Romia and Tien, 1966) and also the parallel
plate mean beam length results calculated from
equation (3). Since Abu-Romia and Tien (1966)
do not give emissivity values to high enough L
values, the integral in equation (3) was evaluated to
L = Lmax. e(X) was assumed to be linear from
Lma.x to L = 10,000 cm and for L > 10,000 ern,
seX) was taken equal to one. This is an upper
bound on the error in eeL,). At L = 9.14 em, the
error was 5 per cent and it increased to about 35 per
cent at L = 30 em. Therefore, additional emissivity
(4) results for large path lengths would be desirable.
Figure 2 shows exact results; gray gas results,
which are based on a wavelength averaged absorp-
tion coefficient (the Planck mean absorption
coefficient); and optically thin results, valid for
small pressure path lengths; obtained from Cess
and Tiwari (1967). The mean beam length results
calculated in the present work are also shown.
For small plate spacings, radiation has a small
 SHORT COMMUNICATION 275

'8

17
16
-Band Absarptance Results
o Results Using La
'i7 Results Using Le
14
o Gray Gas Results
o Oplically Thin Resulls
p·1 ATM
T,·IOOO K
/
'2
V
LO
/
/
/
Downloaded by [Moskow State Univ Bibliote] at 08:25 14 February 2014

[
8

J/ /
6

~
~
4
.2 .4 .5 .6 .7 .8 .9 L 3 4 6 7 0 9 10
L. em

FIG. 2. Comparison of Nusselt numbers.

influence and this influence increases as L increases.
The mean beam length, gray gas and optically thin
results all overestimate the effects of radiation,
and the error increases significantly as L increases.
The geometric mean beam length results over-
estimate the radiation more than the mean beam
length, as would be expected. Both of the mean
beam length results are considerably better approxi-
mations to the exact results than are the gray gas
or optically thin results. For example, at L = 9.14
em, the gray gas solution overestimates the heat
transfer by 540 per cent; the optically thin, by
412 per cent; the geometric mean beam length, by
47 per cent; and the mean beam length, by 36
per cent.
In summary, the mean beam length and geometric
mean beam length results are in relatively close
agreement, and they are approximately an order
of magnitude closer to the exact solution than
either the gray gas or optically thin solutions.
Geometric mean beam length calculations are a
simple way to get an upper bound on the radiative
heat transfer in furnace gases, but this method
also significantly overestimates the heat transfer, at
least for the simple geometry considered in the
present work. More work is needed to determine
the validity of mean beam length calculations in
complicated geometries and for gas mixtures, which
may also include solid particles.
REFERENCES
Abu-Romia, M. M. and Tien, C. L. (1966). Measurements
and correlations of infrared radiation of carbon mon-
oxide at elevated temperatures. J. Quant. Spectrosc,
Radiat, Transfer 6,143-167.
Cess, R. D. and Tiwari, S. N. (1967). Heat transfer to
laminar flow of an Absorbing-Emitting gas between
parallel plates, State University of New York at Stony
Brook, Report No. 90. Presented at third all-union
heat and mass transfer conference, Minsk, U.S.S.R.,
May 14-18, 1968.
Dunkle, R. V. (1964). Geometric mean beam lengths for
radiant heat transfer calculations, J. Heat Transfer 86C,
75-80.
Field, M. A., Gill, D. W., Morgan, B. B., and Hawksley,
P. G. W. (1967). Combustion of Pulverised Coal,
The British Coal Utilisation Research Association,
Leatherhead.
Hottel, H. C. and Sarofim, A. F. (1967). Radiative Transfer,
McGraw-Hili Book Co., New York.
McAdams, W. H. (1954). Heat Transmission, McGraw-Hili
Book Co., New York.
Olfe, D.. B. (1961). Mean beam length calculations for
radiation from non-transparent gases. J. Quant.
Spectrosc. Radiat, Transfer 1, 169-176.
 276 SHORT COMMUNICATION

Oppenheim, A. K. and Bevans, J. T. (1960). Geometric
factors for radiative heat transfer through an absorbing
medium in Cartesian coordinates, J. Heat Transfer 82e,
360-368.
Tien, C. L. and Ling, G. R. (1969). On a simple correlation
for total band absorptance of radiating gases. Int. J.
Heat Mass Transfer 12, 1179-1181.
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Tien, C. L. and Wang, L. S. (1965a). Band absorption laws,
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Proceedings of the 1965 Heat Transfer and Fluid Mech-
anics Institute, pp. 345-357.
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the mean beam length for a radiating gas. J. Quant.
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