Natural Convective Heat Transfer in a Box Filled With a Participating Medium

Abstract

We present a model for calculating the heat transfer by convection and radiation inside a cubic box with high density thermal radiation incident on a small window. The box is filled with a participating fluid and thermal radiation is absorbed by the bulk of the fluid. The numerical method used to integrate the resulting system of integro-differential equations is described and a particular example is discussed. The system analyzed is proposed as the fundamental concept of a heat exchanger that is specifically designed to absorb and store efficiently high density radiation as required in solar energy absorption in Central Receiver Systems.