Thermal radiation

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Thermal radiation is electromagnetic radiation from the surface of an object which is due to the object's temperature. Infrared radiation from a common household radiator or electric heater is an example of thermal radiation, as is the light emitted by a glowing incandescent light bulb. Thermal radiation is generated when heat from the movement of charged particles within atoms is converted to electromagnetic radiation.

The emitted wave frequency of the thermal radiation is a probability distribution depending only on temperature, and for a genuine black body is given by Planck’s law of radiation. Wien's law gives the most likely frequency of the emitted radiation, and the Stefan-Boltzmann law gives the heat intensity.

Contents

1 Properties
2 Interchange of energy
3 Formula
4 Constants
5 External links
6 Applications

Properties

There are three main properties that characterize thermal radiation:

Thermal radiation, even at a single temperature, occurs at a wide range of frequencies. How much of each frequency is given by Planck’s law of radiation.
The main frequency (or color) of the emitted radiation increases as the temperature increases. For example, a red hot object radiates most in the long wavelengths of the visible band, which is why it appears red. If it heats up further, the main frequency shifts to the middle of the visible band, and the spread of frequencies mentioned in the first point make it appear white. We then say the object is white hot. This is Wien's law.
The total amount of radiation, of all frequencies, goes up very fast as the temperature rises. An object at the temperature of a kitchen oven (about twice room temperature in absolute terms) radiates 16 times as much power per unit area. An object the temperature of the filament in an incandescent bulb (roughly 3000 K, or 10 times room temperature) radiates 10,000 times as much per unit area. Mathematically, the total power radiated rises as the fourth power of the absolute temperature, the Stefan-Boltzmann law.

Interchange of energy

Thermal radiation is an important concept in thermodynamics as it is partially responsible for heat exchange between objects, as warmer bodies radiate more heat than colder ones. (Other factors are convection and conduction.) The interplay of energy exchange is characterized by the following equation:

[\alpha+\rho+\tau=1 \,]

Here, [\alpha \,] represents spectral absorption factor, [\rho \,] spectral reflection factor and [\tau \,] spectral transmission factor. All these elements depend also on the frequency [\upsilon \,]. The spectral absorption factor is equal to the emissivity [\epsilon \,]; this relation is known as Kirchhoff's law of thermal radiation. An object is called a black body if, for all frequencies, the following fomula applies:

[\alpha = \epsilon =1]

In a practical situation and room-temperature setting, objects lose considerable energy due to thermal radiation. However, the energy lost by emitting infrared heat is regained by absorbing the heat of surrounding objects. For example, a human being, roughly 1 square meter in area, and about 310 K in temperature, continuously radiates about 500 watts. However, if the person is indoors, in a room of 293 degrees K, they receive back about 400 watts from the wall, ceiling, and other surroundings, so the net loss is only about 100 watts. Clothes (which are at an intermediate temperature in equilibrium) reduce this loss still further.

If objects appear white (reflective in the visual spectrum), they are not necessarily equally reflective (and thus non-emissive) in the thermal infrared; e. g. most household radiators are painted white despite the fact that they have to be good thermal radiators.

Formula

Thermal radiation power of a black body per unit of area, unit of solid angle and unit of frequency [\nu] is given by

[u(\nu,T)=\frac\cdot\frac1-1}]

Integrating the above equation over [\nu] obtains the power output given by the Stefan-Boltzmann law, as:

[W = \sigma \cdot A \cdot T^4]

Further, the wavelength [\lambda \,], for which the emission intensity is highest, is given by Wien's Law as:

[\lambda_ = \frac ]

For surfaces which are not black bodies, one has to consider the (generally frequency dependent) emissivity correction factor [\epsilon(\upsilon)]. This correction factor has to be multiplied with the radiation spectrum formula before integration. The resulting formula for the power output can be written in a way that contains a temperature dependent correction factor which is (somewhat confusingly) often called [\epsilon] as well:

[W = \epsilon(T) \cdot \sigma \cdot A \cdot T^4]

Constants

Definitions of constants used in the above equations:
[h \,] Planck's constant
[b \,] Wien's displacement constant
[k_B \,] Boltzmann constant
[\sigma \,] Stefan-Boltzmann constant
[c \,] Speed of light
[T \,] Temperature
[A \,] Surface area

External links

http://sol.sci.uop.edu/~jfalward/heattransfer/heattransfer.html - Website on heat transfer
http://panda.unm.edu/courses/finley/p262/ThermalRad/ThermalRad.html - Website on thermal radiation
http://www.du.edu/~etuttle/weather/atmrad.htm - Website on thermal radiation in Earth's atmosphere

Applications

[link] How to use radiant heating and cooling for conditioning occupants and building surfaces.

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[h \,]	Planck's constant
[b \,]	Wien's displacement constant
[k_B \,]	Boltzmann constant
[\sigma \,]	Stefan-Boltzmann constant
[c \,]	Speed of light
[T \,]	Temperature
[A \,]	Surface area