A scalable, radiative heat transfer module for gray, diffuse surfaces has been developed. The compute-intensive viewfactor calculation has been carried out with both octree- and mesh-traversal techniques. Pre-calculations at the surface and patch level are used effec-tively to avoid unnecessary searches, and lead to further improvements in speed. Given that automation for large problems is being targeted, the radiosity calculation is not car-ried out at the individual triangle level but at a patch level. The patches are generated by using either an advancing front or bin technique. The resulting radiosity equations are solved iteratively and converge surprisingly fast.
The new radiation module has been linked to heat transfer and flow codes via loose cou- pling techniques.
A variety of validation and production examples demonstrate the capabilities developed.