Application of the lattice Boltzmann method to transient conduction and radiation heat transfer in cylindrical media

In this paper, the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) is applied to solve the energy equation of a transient conduction-radiation heat transfer problem in a two-dimensional cylindrical enclosure filled with an emitting, absorbing and scattering media. The control volume finite element method (CVFEM) is used to obtain the radiative information. To demonstrate the workability of the LBM in conjunction with the CVFEM to conduction-radiation problems in cylindrical media, the energy equation of the same problem is also solved using the finite difference method (FDM). The effects of different parameters, such as the grid size, the scattering albedo, the extinction coefficient and the conduction-radiation parameter on temperature distribution within the medium are studied. Results of the present work are compared with those available in the literature. LBM-CVFEM results are also compared with those given by the FDM-CVFEM. In all cases, good agreement has been obtained. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.