DETERMINATION OF RADIATIVE VIEW FACTOR WITHOUT CONSIDERING THE SHADOWING EFFECT

ABSTRACT View factor refers to the fraction of heat energy leaving a radiating surface which is intercepted on another surface. This view factor can be determined with or without considering the shadow effect. Shadow effect refers to the reduction in net radiative transfer between two surfaces, due to the obstruction of radiation by a third surface present in between them. This paper presents the details of a numerical integration technique for evaluating view factors without considering the shadow effect and a comparison of the results obtained with analytical results. A FORTRAN code was developed for view factor computation using double area integration method