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Authoritative coverage of thermal radiation theory and potential applications in solar power energy generation.
This comprehensive guide discusses in-depth fundamentals of radiation, and explains how to apply the theories presented to developing energy-generating devices. As solar radiation is considered more frequently as an attractive energy source, it is increasingly important for engineers to understand the laws of radiation.
Thermal Radiation Engineering for Solar Power Energy Generation provides exhaustive discussions of energy and exergy theories. Three chapters are allocated to demonstrate installation examples of radiation energy. Appendices include constant values for radiation and application of mathematics to some thermodynamic relations for easy reference.
From the Preface
From the very beginning, humans have lived together with the cardinal laws of thermodynamics. Some of the laws - e.g., about temperature, conservation of energy, and the irreversibility of processes - were sensed intuitively since the days of ancient civilizations. However, according to our obtainable knowledge, only in the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries were these three laws inspiringly articulated together with the other two laws added later in the last century. Today, the cardinal laws of thermodynamics are applied to more and more problems, on both the micro and macro scales of specific objects, and they often are formulated, sometimes unnecessarily, in a complex and sophisticated mathematical way - multidimensional, differential, vectorial, matrix, statistical, etc. Through inventing ways the science mainly develops applications of these old laws to explore newly arising problems or objects.
The reader should not expect to find any new cardinal discoveries described in the present book, but what will be found here is only application of some old laws for exploration of one of the most admirable natural phenomena - thermal radiation. In the continual quest for new energy sources, solar radiation, or other radiation, grows in significance and becomes more and more attractive because its utilization does not pollute the environment. However, we should not forget that besides solar radiation there are also other sources of thermal radiation, e.g., hot walls radiating at a temperature not as high as that of the sun but still significant enough to be considered in various processes, mostly industrial.
Therefore, the aim of this book is to study radiation from any arbitrary source. One specific case is cold radiation, well disclosed by exergy, which comes from remote cosmic space and is represented by
the lower sky temperature which slightly differs from the temperature of bodies surrounding daily human existence on earth. However, although such a source exists potentially, it is still not practically considered because of the relatively small power available at such a small temperature difference.
It was the end of the 1950s when I tried for the first time to approach radiation from an exergy viewpoint. In those days exergy analysis was already relatively well advanced but applied only to the thermodynamics of substance. The exchange of information between researchers was not as good as it is today, and generally the communication gap between thermodynamic physicists and engineering
thermodynamicists was visible.
For example, the works on entropy by Planck were not popular in engineering circles, and some distinguished scientists in engineering did not recognize the practical benefit of implementing entropy in the analysis of engineering processes related to radiation. Also, the Second Law of Thermodynamics was not commonly applied to radiation.
My own doctoral thesis in 1960, in which I derived the formulae for the exergy of radiation, was met with astonishment mixed with skepticism and only formally proceeded thanks to a few supportive individuals (e.g., S. Ochçduszko and J. Szargut). In 1964, I published in ASME a brief overview of the thesis, but it did not awaken any significant interest until years later in the late 1970s. Gradually, but still very slowly, interest grew to the relatively large focus that is noticed today due to the growth of the solar energy role.
My theory of radiation exergy seemed to me very simple and basic; therefore, from the beginning I tried to incorporate it into textbooks on either thermodynamics or heat transfer. But it was usually rejected as not fitting, neither to substance thermodynamics nor to engineering calculation of heat transferred by radiation. Time flew by, and only recently I came to the conclusion that radiation exergy could be the pivotal target in a new book defined around the area of the engineering thermodynamics of thermal radiation. Thus, the present book is proposed as an introduction to such an area.
Writing my book was also inspired by the solar power chapter in Bejan's outstanding book, Advanced Engineering Thermodynamics, which introduced thermodynamics in many new areas. The present book, however, is focused mainly only on radiation, which is an important part of overall thermodynamics. I assume that the reader is familiar with the fundamentals of engineering thermodynamics and radiative heat transfer, and only a brief outline of these areas is discussed here, mostly for comparison of the substance and photon gas. The book is addressed to the designers, users, and researchers of different devices or installations in which radiation - in particular, solar radiation - plays a role in generating heat, power, or green plants.
I will be grateful to readers for any comments and suggestions that could lead to improvement of the present book.
About the Author
Ryszard Petela DSc PhD is now president of Technology Scientific Ltd. As a university professor he did research and taught courses on engineering thermodynamics, energy conversion processes, heat and mass transfer, combustion, and fuel technology. Dr. Petela is the associate editor for the Journal of Solar Energy and the Journal of Exergy.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction. Chapter 2: Definitions and Laws of Substance. Chapter 3: Definitions and Laws of Radiation. Chapter 4: The Laws in Thermodynamic Analysis. Chapter 5: Thermodynamics Properties of Photon Gas. Chapter 6: Exergy of Emission. Chapter 7: Radiation Flux. Chapter 8: Radiation Spectra of Surfaces. Chapter 9: Discussion of Radiation Exergy Formulae Proposed by Researchers. Chapter 10: Thermodynamic Analysis of Heat from the Sun. Chapter 11: Thermodynamic Analysis of Solar Chimney Power Plant. Chapter 12: Thermodynamic Analysis of Photosysthesis. Chapter 13: Thermodynamic Analysis of Photovoltaic.
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