About Radiation to Ambient

Radiation describes heat transfer to a nonreflecting environment due to radiation.

Radiations to ambient definitions consist of three components:

  • Transmission surface
  • Ambient temperature
  • Emissivity of the transmission surface

Where a heat flux directly prescribes a constant flow of heat into or out of a surface, radiation effects determine the flow of heat due to differences between the temperature of a surface and the temperature of its surroundings (the ambient temperature). No heat flow occurs if the surface is the same temperature as its surroundings. Emissivity is a property of a surface that determines how quickly it emits radiative energy; the higher the emissivity, the higher the resulting heat flux will be.