Abstract

This work presents an original technique based on parametric interpolation to estimate the view factor between unsteady flames and a small target. The technique was tested on a buoyant diffusion flame generated in an ethylene-fueled porous burner that emulates a pool fire. Flame images were processed to determine the flame contours in terms of parametric polynomials. A mathematical formulation based on the Stokes' theorem was developed to estimate the view factor between the flame and a radiometer, whose contour integrals were solved numerically. These results were compared to ones obtained with the point-source method and the solid flame model, assuming the flame as a cylinder and a cone. The proposed technique captures the influence of geometry on the radiant flux field more robustly than these methods, providing estimations of thermal radiation between the point and solid flame models.