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Proceedings of
2000 International Joint Power Generation Conference
Miami Beach, Florida, July 23-26, 2000

IJPGC2000-15081
STUDY ON RADIATIVE ENERGY TRANSFER IN SUPER-INSULATION

OF PACKED SPHERES

Hiroshi TANIGUCHI
Faculty of Engineering
Hokkai Gakuen University
S 26, W 11-1-1, Chuo-ku
Sappro 064-0926, JAPAN
Fax 81-11-551-2951

Norio ARAI
Research Center of Ad. Energy Cony.
Nagoya University
Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku
Nagoya 464-8603, JAPAN
Fax 81-52-789-3910

Masakazu OBATA
Division of Mech. & Mech. Systems
Kanazawa Institute of Technology
7-10hgigaoka, Nonoichi
Ishikawa 921-8501, JAPAN
Fax 81-76-294-6704

Hiroaki SASAKI
Faculty of Engineering
Hokkai Gakuen University
S 26, W 11-1-1, Chuo-ku
Sapporo 064-0926, JAPAN
Fax 81-551-2951

ABSTRACT
The paper describes a numerical study on the
super-insulation for the energy saving of industrial
furnaces and the study is supported by Japanese
Government. When we put a super-insulation of
packed spheres in practical use, i t is necessary
to know the mechanism of energy transfer in the
thermal shield. The energy transfer process in the
packed spheres is mainly divided by radiation and
convection, but the convection effect is considered
to be negligibly small in a dense porosity bed of
packed spheres. Then, the radiative energy transfer
in the super-insulation of packed spheres is
analyzed with a one- or three-dimensional numerical
model by applying Monte Carlo method. The analysis
is
performed in the cases of regularly and
irregularly packed spheres for various emissivity
values to examine the radiation effect. The result
shows that the energy transfer is largely affected
by the porosity and depth of bed, and by the
emissivity of spheres.

Z=
B=
r =
=
(r)
Z =

Coordinate in Z direction [ m ]
Extinction coefficient [ 1/m ]
Reflection angle [ Tad ]
Emissivity value of surface [ - ]
= Phase function [ - ]
Transmittance through packed spheres [ - ]

1. INTRODUCTION
In the modern industrial furnace, the energy
saving has an important role and can be achieved by
applying various kinds of new technologies such as
the revised heating system with a high temperature
air combustion, the super-insulation for a thermal
shield and so on. The present study aims to acquire
the foundamental information about the energy
transfer for the super-insulation of packed spheres
in a dense porosity bed by a numerical analysis and
some measurements.
The heat transfer
research into
superinsulation is an interesting story of industrial
and academic cooperation.
The energy transfer
process
inside the super-insulation is usually
complex and has a d i f f i c u l t y to perform accurate
measurements, so that
most concerned work i n
academic fields has been done on numerical models
and on simple experiments to know the mechanism of
energy transfer in a thermal shield as reported by
Taniguchi et al. [1], Kudo et al. [2,3]. In these
studies, i t is shown that the energy transfer in
the dense porosity bed depends generally on the
process of radiation and convection heat transfer,
but the radiation has a predominant effect in

KEY WORDS: Radiation Energy Transfer, Insulation,

Packed Spheres, Dense Porosity Bed
NOMENCLATURE
C = Porosity of packed spheres [ - ]
D = Diameter of Sphere [ m ]
n = Number of spheres per unit volume [ l/m3 ]
t = Depth of bed [ m ]
X = Coordinate in X direction [ m ]
Y = Coordinate in Y direction [ m ]

Copyright (C) 2000 by ASME

comparison with the convection to be negligibly

small.
In this study, the radiative energy transfer in
the super-insulation of packed spheres was analyzed
by Monte Carlo method with an adequate one- or
three-dimensional numerical model. The analysis was
performed in the cases of regularly and irregularly
packed spheres for various emissivity values to
examine the radiation effect. The results were
compared with some experiments and agreed well with
one of the measurements for irregularly packed
spheres. It was also found from the prediction that
the energy transfer was strongly affected by the
porosity and depth of the bed, and by the emissivity
of the sphere surface. Furthermore, we feel that
the results give useful qualitative insights into
some of the important aspects of the superinsulation in actual furnaces.

smaller value than the irregularly packed spheres.

On the other hand, Fig.7 shows the result of other
calculations for irregularly packed spheres with
a lower porosity 0.008, in which T is calculated for
two emissivity values by convensional continuous
model and Monte Carlo method is plotted against the
optical thickness Bt, as may be defined by Eq.(3).
Bt =~D2t n/4

Thus for the lower porosity, i t was found that Monte

Carlo method gives nearly the same values of the
transmittance obtained by the continuous model.
3.2 Experiments and Results
Experiments to j u s t i f y the numerical prediction
were carried out by a three-dimensional model so
that the porosity distribution can be kept uniform,
except near
the side-walls.
Figure 8 shows
an outline of the experimemtal apparatus with
including the test section and the measuring system.
The test section consists of a rectangular vessel
of 63.5 mmmx 63.5 mrm in width and 50.0 mm in
height, and spheres of 4.76 mm in diameter. A top
view of the irregularly packed spheres at each-cross
sectional layer in the test section is shown in
Fig.9.
Figure 10 indicates measurements of the total
transmittance for the different depth of bed, in
which the data are compared with predictions by
Monte Carlo method, and i t is shown that the
predicted values agree well with the measurements.
From these results, the mechanism of the total
transmittance
through three-dimensional packed
spheres can be estimated with mirror side-walls
as shown in Fig.11, and i t is suggested that any
experiment for radiative energy transfer should
be done by a three-dimensional model with
an adequate boundary conditions and geometrical
configurations.

2. NUMERICAL MODEL AND METHOD

Figure 1 shows a one-dimensional numerical

model for irregularly packed spheres to analyze the
radiative energy transfer in a three-dimensional
domain, and which cross-sectional view is indicated
with a porosity distribution in Fig.2. Another
regularity or the regularly packed spheres is also
introduced to examine the effect of the sphere
package, and the same indication is given in Fig.3.
The numerical analysis was performed by Monte Carlo
method, which will be one of the best way to
simulate a three-dimensional trajectory of energy
boundles and to estimate easily a transmittance
through the dense porosity bed of packed spheres as
shown in Fig.4. To simulate the trajectory of
energy boundles, phase functions were prepared for
the phenomenon of reflection on the diffuse and
specular surfaces of packed spheres. These
expressions are given by Eqs.(1) and (2), and
a calculation result is shown in Fig.5.

e(r)=(8/3~r) (sinr- rcosr)

e(r)=l

(3)

4. CONCLUSIO~
The radiative energy transfer in packed spheres
has been estimated by a numerical method and the
results agree well with measurements in a threedimensional model. The numerical results
were
evaluated for the transmittance of energy boundles
obtained
by applying
M o n t e Carlo method.
In considering the radiative energy transfer in
super-insulation for thermal shields,
the onedimensional continuous model is capable of providing
numerically the
transmittance
through packed
spheres. The comparative data should be obtained
experimentally by a three-dimensional model with

Diffuse surface (I)

Specular surface (2)

3. RESULTSAND DISCUSSION
3.1 Numerical Results
In Fig.6, the total transmittance of energy
boundles T calculated for the average porosity 0..55
is plotted against the dimensionless depth of bed
t/D for the differently packed spheres, where the
emissivity value ~ was varied from 0.0 to 1.0. It
can be seen that r is largely affected by t/D and e,
and the regularly packed spheres give a l i t t l e

Copyright (C) 2000 by ASME

adequate boundary conditions

configurations.

and

geometrical

REFERENCES
[i] H.Taniguchi et al.: Numerical Analysis on Transmittance of Radiative Energy through ThreeDimensional Packed Spheres, Numerical Methods in
Thermal Problems, Vol.4, (1989), 762-772.
[2] K.Kudo et al.: Transmittance of Radiative Energy
through Three-Dimensional Packed Spheres, ASME/
JSME Thermal Eng. Conf., Vol.4, (1991), 35-42.
[3] Z.Kudo et al.: Side Wall Effects on the Transmittance of Radiative Energy through a ThreeDimensional Packed Bed, Heat Transfer Japanese
Research, Vol.2 No.l, (1991), 86-95.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors gratefully acknowledge the supports
provided through Development of Highly Efficient and
Valuable Energy-Generating
Gas Turbine System
Project in Nagoya University by Ministry of
International Trade and Industry of Japan, and
provided through Academic Frontier Research Project
of Anti-Earthquake System and Module Development for
Cold Region City Area in Hokkai Gakuen University
by Ministry of Education of Japan.

ZL

'I
g

YL

Cavg=O.55

Ratiative energy

XL

incidence

Fig.l Ntmerical model of irregularly

packed spheres

._Jr'h- ~ . - ~

(")~J/"]Radiative energy

0 tJ -Ji.eideoce

~8

o.c

0.

----- Cavg=O. 55
I

(1

0.2

0.4

0.6

Fig.2 Cross sectional view and porosity distribution

(Irregularly packed spheres)

~ o.~
uo 0.2

(
(

0.8
Z/ZL

1.0

A 0.8

)O0000i

o.6
energy

(~) (~) C~ (~) O (~") ~rJ incidence

)O000i

"~
0.~
o
0.2

----- Cavg=O. 55

0.0

O~

0.2

0.4

0.6

Fig.3 Cross sectional view and porosity distribution

(Regularly packed spheres)

0.8

1.0

Z/ZL

Copyright (C) 2000 by ASME

O'

30"

60"

Monte Carlo
method
e: Specular

surface
o: Diffuse
surface

)o"

,zo' Analytical results

of Eqs.(1) and (2)
Cavg=O. 55
150"

Fig.4 Three-dimensional trajectory

of energy boundles
(Irregilarly packed spheres)

Radiative energy
incidence

Fig.5 Phase function of reflection for

diffuse and specular surfaces

IL"

"~_~,~'c~.~^
i

(:ave0"55

Id'

v~' \

E=0.0

""o-.,~o.,,o..,.o"

"-o--o..c:
,d'

CavFO0.08M -

t~

~J

{~
: Irregularly packed spheres
{
-4 | - ' :Partly irregularly packed spheres
10 ~-__. :Regularly packed spheres
l
I
|
I
I
I
I
0
{
2
3
~
5
6
Non-dimensional depth of bed t/D

Continuous method
- - - - - E =0.05
E=I.0

,8

Monte Carlo method

--o-- E =0.05
- - e - - E =I.0

-L

lo

1.0

2D

3.0

Optical thickness Bt

Fig.6 Numerical results of transmittance

through packed spheres by Monte
Carlo method

Fig.7 Numerical results of transmittance

through regularly packed spheres
by continuous method and Monte Carlo
method

Copyright (C) 2000 by ASME

He-Ne l a s e r

cO ~ I

Sensor traveling
system
(a)Horizontal view of
(b)Front vie~ of
optical set up
test s e c t i o n
Parallel energy
beam

Packed s

63. sxs3.5

x~a~w~ ]

Convex l e n s ~ J

Sensor traveling~-~' "o

Sensor

system

(c)Packed spheres of bed with mirror (d)Packed spheres of bed with mirror
side-walls and measuring system
side-wallsand measuring system
for total transmittance
for local transmittance

Fig.8 Experimental apparatus of irregularly packed spheres

ImlnilimaNl

ammumnuinan
nmmmmmmmnmm
nmmmmmmmmmu
ummmmmnmnmn
nmmmmmumnun

mimmimmimmm
|mmmmmmmmm|
mmmmmmmmmmm

,.

, . .

II

'I

* '

"

l(

w '

P[

".4

:. # J 4

E W . N

(a) t/D=O

o ."i.
*

b 4 , . , ~ ' ~ '9"~

'

mmmmmmmmmmm

w.

i
I

x , |

(b) t/D=0.847

(c) t/D=l.69

(e) t/D=3.39

(f) t/D=4.23

..d.
J
* "(

(d) t/D=2.54

Fig.9 Top view of test section with irregularly packed spheres

Copyright (C) 2000 by ASME

Id'

w.J

Experimental results
with square cross section
i XL/D=YL/D " Cavg
o
8.0
0.58
13.3
0.61
o
20.0'
0.61

--

Total transmittance of packed

spheres with square test section

.id2

,d3

Total tr~.s,it;~n'c, of pa~ed

. ~
spheres with circular test section ' ~

Numerical results
by Monte Carlo method
XL/D=YL/D
Cavg
8.0
0.58
!----.....

13.3,
20.0

bn
o

0.61
0.61

Non-dimensional depth of bed

--.--Energy transmitted
through central area
------Energy transmitted
through peripheral area
- - - - Energuy transmitted
through corner area
Non-dimensional depth of bed

t/D

t/D

Fig.ll Estimated mechanism of

transmittance through
three-dimensional packed
spheres with mirror sidewalls

Fig.lO Experimental results of

transmittance through
irregularly packed spheres
with mirror side-walls

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Copyright (C) 2000 by ASME