Radiation symmetry test and uncertainty analysis of Monte Carlo method based on radiative exchange factor

Using Monte Carlo method, the paper investigates the radiative heat transfer in participating media. Based on the radiative exchange factor, an uncertainty analysis of Monte Carlo method is undertaken and the corresponding mathematical expressions are deduced to predict its accuracy. Furthermore, randomness properties of pseudorandom number generators are investigated, and a model to test radiation symmetry is adopted to validate the performance of some generators. The paper studies the effects of energy bundle numbers, discretization schemes, emission location, optical thicknesses, wall emissivity and CPU time on the numerical accuracy. In addition, the simulation results are proved to give a reference for using Monte Carlo method, which is applicable for calculation of the radiative exchange factor.