Radiative Transfer in Hartmann MHD Flow

Abstract

The high temperatures and gaseous products resulting from combustion of hydrocarbon fuels in magnetohydrodynamic generators have provided an impetus to develop more accurate methods for prediction of gas temperature profiles and heat fluxes at the generator walls. One area where an improvement may be realized is in the evaluation of radiative transfer between the gas and surrounding walls. Analyses and results are presented to examine the importance of the radiative transfer term appearing in the gas energy balance for classical Hartmann MHD flow. Results for both real (nongray) and gray gas radiative properties are presented. Inclusion of radiation is found to increase the surface heat flux as well as to alter gas temperature profiles. Furthermore, real gas results differ significantly from those for a gray gas.