Modeling the role of microstructural parameters in radiative heat transfer through disordered fibrous media

Understanding the influence of microstructural parameters on the rate of heat transfer through a disordered fibrous medium is important for the design and development of heat insulation materials. In this work, by generating virtual 3-D geometries that resemble the internal microstructure of fibrous insulation materials, we simulated the influence of diameter, orientation, and emissivity of the fibers, as well as the media’s porosity and thickness on the radiative heat transmittance. Our simulations are based on a Monte Carlo ray tracing algorithm that we have developed for studying radiative heat flow in 3-D disordered media. The media were assumed to be made up of cylindrical opaque fibers with specular surface. The advantage of our modeling approach is that it does not require any empirical input values, and can directly be used to isolate and study the role of individual microstructural parameters of the media. The major limitation of the model is that it is accurate as long as the fibers can be considered large relative to the wavelength of the incoming rays. Our results indicate that heat flux through a fibrous medium decreases by increasing the packing fraction of the fibers when the thickness and fiber diameter are kept constant. Increasing the fibers’ absorptivity (or emissivity) was observed to decrease the radiation transmittance through the media. Our simulations also revealed that for constant porosity and thickness, the heat flux transmitted across the medium can be reduced by using finer fibers. The steady state temperature profiles across the thicknesses of media with different properties were obtained and found to be independent of the fibers’ emissivity.