ABSTRACT
In addition to surface radiation properties such as emissivity, reflectivity, and absorptivity, view factor is another important parameter for determining radiation heat transfer between two surfaces. A view factor is also called an angle factor or shape factor. This chapter shows how to define the view factor between two surfaces and shows radiation exchange between the two diffuse isothermal surfaces (i.e., each surface has uniform emission and reflection from the surface). The differential radiation rate (including emission and reflection) from unit surfaces is proportional to its intensity and the unit solid angle. View factor is a function of geometry only. The chapter shows several well-known methods to obtain the view factor for common geometry for radiation heat transfer applications. The methods are Hottel’s String method, direct integration method, contour integration method, and algebraic method. The Stokes’ theorem is utilized to transform area to line integration.
