Heat and Mass Transfer: Fundamentals & Applications

5th Edition
Yunus A. Çengel, Afshin J. Ghajar
McGraw-Hill, 2015

Chapter 5
FUNDAMENTALS OF
THERMAL RADIATION

Mehmet Kanoglu
University of Gaziantep

Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display.
 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 Radiation differs from conduction and
convection in that it does not require the
The hot object in vacuum presence of a material medium to take place.
chamber will eventually cool Radiation transfer occurs in solids as well as
down and reach thermal liquids and gases.
equilibrium with its
surroundings by a heat transfer
mechanism: radiation.

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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. 5
Light is simply the visible portion of
A body that emits some radiation in the
the electromagnetic spectrum that
visible range is called a light source.
lies between 0.40 and 0.76 m.
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. 6
 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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The radiation energy emitted by a blackbody per unit
area over a wavelength band from  = 0 to  is

Blackbody radiation function f:

The fraction of radiation emitted from a
blackbody at temperature T in the
wavelength band from  = 0 to .

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15
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.
Solid Angle
Intensity of Emitted Radiation
Incident
Radiation
Radiosity
Spectral Quantities
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 8
A cordless telephone is designed to operate at a frequency of 8.5 x 10 Hz.
Determine the wavelength of these telephone waves.

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Electricity is generated and transitted in power lines at a frequency of
60 Hz. ( 1 Hz = 1 cycle per second)
Determine the wavelength of the electromagnetic waves generated
By the passage of electricity in power lines.

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 8
The speed of light in vacuum is given to be 3.0 x 10 m/s. Determine the
Speed of light in air (n=1), in water (n = 1.33) and in glass (n= 1.5)

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Example 12-2

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(2800K)

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A microwave oven is designed to operate at a frequency of 2.2 x 10 Hz.
Determine the wavelength of these microwaves and the energy of each
Microwave.

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12-22

Consider a 20cm x 20cm x 20cm cubical body at 750 K suspended in the

air. Assuming the body closely approximates a blackbody, determine

(a) The rate at which the cube emits radiation energy, in W

(b) the spectral blackbody emissive power at a wavelength of 4 μm

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 2
A small surface area A = 1 cm emits radiation as a blackbody at
1800 K. Determine the rate at which radiation energy is emitted
through a band defined by 0 ≤ Φ ≤ 2π and 45° ≤ θ ≤ 60°, where θ
Is the angle a radiation beam makes with the normal of the surface
And Φ is the azimuth length.

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THE END

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