EXAMPLE 10.

5-1 Radiation Shield

Radiation shields are used to reduce the rate of radiation heat transfer to or from an object that
must be thermally isolated. Radiation shields are commonly used on spacecraft (for example, the
Hubble Space Telescope in Figure 10-21), where radiation is the sole mechanism for heat
transfer.

Consider a spherical object that is placed in a cubical enclosure, as shown in Figure 1. The
diameter of the object is D
p
=0.3 m. The surface of the object is unpolished stainless steel; the
surface can be considered diffuse and gray with an emittance of
p
=0.30. The object receives
radiation from the cubical enclosure which is at a temperature T
enc
=300 K. The enclosure
surfaces are black.

T
enc
=300K

enc
=1.0
D
p
=0.3m

p
=0.3

Figure 1: A spherical object in a cubical enclosure.

a) Determine the rate of cooling that would be required to maintain the temperature of the
object at T
p
=10 K.

The inputs are entered in EES:

"EXAMPLE 10.5-1(a)"
$UnitSystem SI MASS RAD PA K J
$TABSTOPS 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 3.5 in

"Inputs"
T_enc =300 [K] "temperature of the enclosure"
D_p=0.3 [m] "diameter of object"
e_p=0.3 [-] "emissivity of object"
T_p =10 [K] "temperature of object"

A network representation of the radiation heat transfer for this problem is shown in Figure 2.
Note that the surface resistance for the enclosure is 0 because it is black and therefore R
s,enc
is not
included in Figure 2.

E
b,enc
J
p
E
b,p
,
,
1
enc p
p p enc
R
A F
=
( )
,
1
p
s p
p p
R
A

=

Figure 2: Network representation for the radiation between the electronic package and the surroundings

The view factor between the object and the enclosure is one (all of the radiosity that leaves the
object must hit the enclosure, F
p,enc
=1.0) and the surface area of the object is:


2
p p
A D =

The space resistance between the object and the enclosure is:


1
enc p
p p enc
R
A F
=
,
,

F_p_enc=1.0 [-] "view factor between the object and the enclosure"
A_p=pi*D_p^2 "surface area of object"
R_enc_p=1/(A_p*F_p_enc) "space resistance between enclosure and object"

The surface resistance of the object is:


( )
1
p
s p
p p
R
A

=
,
(1)

R_s_p=(1-e_p)/(e_p*A_p) "surfaceresistanceoftheobject"

The heat transfer rate from the enclosure to the object is given by:


b enc b p
p
s p enc c
E E
q
R R

=
+
, ,
, ,


where the blackbody emissive powers of the enclosure and object can be computed from their
temperatures:


4
b p p
E T =
,
(2)

and


4
b enc enc
E T =
,
(3)

E_b_p=sigma#*T_p^4 "blackbodyemissivepowerofobject"
E_b_enc=sigma#*T_enc^4 "blackbodyemissivepowerofenclosure"
q_dot_p=(E_b_enc-E_b_p)/(R_s_p+R_enc_p) "heattransfertoobject"

which leads to
p
q =39.0 W.

b) The object is placed within a spherical, polished stainless steel radiation shield that has
diameter D
s
=0.5 m, as shown in Figure 3. The inside and outside surfaces of this shield can
be considered to be diffuse and gray with emissivity
s
=0.17. The shield is thin and
conductive; therefore, both the inner and outer surfaces can be considered to be at the same
temperature and diameter. Determine the heat transfer rate that would be required to
maintain the object at T
p
=10 K with the radiation shield in place.

T
enc
=300K

enc
=1.0
D
p
=0.3m

p
=0.3
D
s
=0.5m
T
p
=10K
shield

s
=0.17(bothsides)

Figure 3: Object with a radiation shield.

The inputs are entered in EES:

"EXAMPLE10.5-1(b)"
$UnitSystemSIMASSRADPAKJ
$TABSTOPS0.20.40.60.83.5in

"Inputs"
T_enc=300[K] "temperatureoftheenclosure"
D_p=0.3[m] "diameterofobject"
e_p=0.3[-] "emissivityofobject"
T_p=10[K] "temperatureofobject"
D_s=0.5[m] "shielddiameter"
e_s=0.17[-] "shieldemissivity"

A network representation of the problem with the shield is shown in Figure 4; note that the
internal surface of the shield is designated as surface (si) and the external surface as (so).

E
b,enc
J
so
E
b,s
J
si
J
p
E
b,p
,
,
1
enc so
s so enc
R
A F
=
( )
,
1
s
s so
s s
R
A

=
( )
,
1
s
s si
s s
R
A

=
( )
,
1
p
s p
p p
R
A

=
,
,
1
p si
p p si
R
A F
=

Figure 4: Network representation for the radiation between the object and the surroundings with a radiation
shield in place

The inner and outer surfaces of the shield (si and so) are assumed to be at the same temperature
because the shield is thin and conductive; therefore,
b si b so b s
E E E = =
, , ,
. The surface resistance
associated with the object is given by Eq. (3). The surface resistances associated with the inner
and outer surfaces of the shield are the same:


( ) 1
s
s si s so
s s
R R
A

= =
, ,


where


2
s s
A D =

"Partb"
A_p=pi*D_p^2 "surfaceareaofobject"
R_s_p=(1-e_p)/(e_p*A_p) "surfaceresistanceoftheobject"
A_s=pi*D_s^2 "surfaceareaoftheshield"
R_s_si=(1-e_s)/(e_s*A_s) "surfaceresistanceoftheshield-innersurface"
R_s_si=R_s_so "surfaceresistanceoftheshield-outersurface"

The space resistance between the object and the inner surface of the shield is:


1
p si
p p si
R
A F
=
,
,


where F
p,si
is 1.0. The space resistance between the outer surface of the shield and the enclosure
is:


1
enc so
s so enc
R
A F
=
,
,



where F
so,enc
is also 1.0.

F_p_si=1.0[-] "viewfactorbetweentheobjectandtheinnersurfaceoftheshield"
R_p_si=1/(A_p*F_p_si) "spaceresistancebetweentheobjectandtheinnersurfaceoftheshield"
F_so_enc=1.0[-] "viewfactorbetweentheoutersurfaceoftheshieldandtheenclosure"
R_enc_so=1/(A_s*F_so_enc)
"spaceresistancebetweentheoutersurfaceoftheshieldandtheenclosure"

The blackbody emissive powers that drive the heat transfer through the resistance network in
Figure 4 were computed in Eqs. (2) and (3). The rate of heat transfer to the package is:


b enc b p
p
enc so s si s so p si s p
E E
q
R R R R R

=
+ + + +
, ,
, , , , ,


E_b_p=sigma#*T_p^4 "blackbodyemissivepowerofobject"
E_b_enc=sigma#*T_enc^4 "blackbodyemissivepowerofenclosure"
q_dot_p=(E_b_enc-E_b_p)/(R_enc_so+R_s_si+R_s_so+R_p_si+R_s_p)"heattransfertoojbect"

which leads to
p
q =18.0 W. Note that the addition of the radiation shield has reduced the heat
transfer rate by approximately 50% due to the additional resistances associated with the radiation
shield (specifically, the two surface resistances R
s,so
and R
s,si
and the space resistance R
enc,so
in
Figure 4). The surface resistances can be made large, and therefore the thermal isolation
improved, by reducing the emissivity of the radiation shield surfaces. Figure 5 illustrates the
heat transfer rate to the package as a function of the emissivity of the radiation shield.

0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
Shield emissivity
H
e
a
t

t
r
a
n
s
f
e
r

r
a
t
e

(
W
)

Figure 5: Heat transfer rate as a function of the emissivity of the radiation shield.