Existence, uniqueness and construction of the solution of the energy transfer problem in a rigid and nonconvex black body (Q1178982)

The paper deals with the problem of steady heat conduction of a rigid, radiating black body. The radiation is by the well-known Stefan-Boltzmann law. The body is assumed to be nonconvex so that there exists a direct radiant energy exchange between the points on the boundary of the body. The heat conduction in the body is governed by a linear partial differential equation generated by Fourier's law. The boundary condition is represented by a nonlinear integro-differential operator acting on the temperature at the boundary whose kernel depends on the shape of the body and vanishes for convex bodies. It is shown by employing a variational principle that the solution for a nonconvex body is obtainable through a Cauchy sequence of solutions obtained by omitting radiant energy transfer. However, on evaluating the \(i-1\)st element of the sequence the ith element plays the part of a source term due to the nonconvexity of the body. By using some results of functional analysis it is proved that the sequence is convergent and there exists a unique limit function. Hence the author provides an iterative scheme for solving such problems.