Monte Carlo method for calculating local configuration factor for the practical case in material processing

The application of Monte Carlo method is discussed to determine configuration factor for the plate including strip elements to two parallel circular cylinders as a case in heating and cooling processes in material processing (e.g. transfer table in hot rolling process). The results show the relationships between different discretization schemes, number of rays used for the configuration factor calculation, and accuracy. Whereas the analytical solutions are not available for this case, Monte Carlo method with 30 and 45 element discretized figures for (100(4)) and (120(4)) rays per element is investigated. The results, obtained from Monte Carlo solution, indicate that smaller elements require more effort to obtain an accurate configuration factor. Additionally, it must be noted that for high accuracy results an increase in the number of rays per element requires the processing time to grow rapidly. By using the configuration factor modeling, the radiative heat transfer can be calculated in various cases for any kinds of heating and cooling processes. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.