The unique solvability of a complex 3D heat transfer problem (Q2257749)

The authors of this interesting paper investigate complex heat transfer processes that include conduction, convection and radiation heat exchanges. By definition the heat conduction is a molecular process caused by non-uniform temperature distributions, and the convection transfers heat due to macroscopic motions of media. It is known that the radiative heat transfer occurs through the emission and absorption of electromagnetic waves. All these processes are observed in gas turbines, combusting and cooling systems, industrial furnaces, in metallurgic technologies and so on. The contemporary mathematical techniques used for one-dimensional radiative and conductive thermal models can be seen in [\textit{M. N. Özisik}, Radiative transfer and interaction with conduction and convection. New York: John Wiley (1973)], [\textit{C. E. Siewert}, ``An improved iterative method for solving a class of coupled conductive-radiative heat-transfer problems'', J. Quant. Spectrosc. Radiative Transfer 54, No. 4, 599--605 (1995; \url{doi:10.1016/0022-4073(95)00111-W})], [\textit{L. B. Barichello, P. Rodrigues} and \textit{C. E. Siewert}, ``An analytical discrete-ordinates solution for dual-mode heat transfer in a cylinder'', ibid. 73, No. 6, 583--602 (2002; \url{doi:10.1016/S0022-4073(01)00181-9})], [\textit{M. F. Modest}, Radiative heat transfer. Second edition. New York: Academic Press (2003)] and others. Note that there is an existence and uniqueness theorem proved by \textit{C. T. Kelley} [Transp. Theory Stat. Phys. 25, No. 2, 249--260 (1996; Zbl 0857.45009)]. This is the case of isotropic scattering and non-reflecting boundaries. A modified Monte Carlo method for an effective numerical treatment of nonlinear heat transfer in homogeneous layers with axisymmetric thermal radiative properties was discussed by the authors of the present paper [Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer 55, No. 4, 649--654 (2012; Zbl 1262.80032)]. Here, the authors consider a three-dimensional steady-state conductive, convective, and radiative heat transfer problem, and existence of bounded solutions of the diffusion model is proved. The model considered here includes an integro-differential equation describing the intensity of heat-radiation and a conductive-convective heat transfer equation, \[ \omega\cdot\nabla_{r}I(r,\omega )+\kappa I(r,\omega ) = \kappa_{S}(4\pi )^{-1}\int\limits_{\Omega } P(\omega ,\omega^{'})I(r,\omega^{'} )d\omega^{'} + \kappa_{a}(\pi )^{-1}\sigma n^2T^4(r), \] where \(r \in G\) and \(\omega\in \Omega \), denote spacial points and ray directions, respectively, \(\kappa\equiv \kappa_{S} + \kappa_{a}\) is the total attenuation factor, \(\kappa_{S}\) the scattering coefficient, \(\kappa_{a}\) the absorption coefficient, \(\sigma \) the Stefan-Boltzmann constant, \(n\) the index of refraction, \(P(\omega ,\omega^{'})\) the phase function, \(I(r,\omega )\) the intensity of radiation, and \(T ( r )\) the temperature. It is assumed for simplicity that \(\kappa \), \(\kappa_{S}\), and \(\kappa_{a}\) are constants. A boundary condition to the above stated equation is defined as well. It expresses the effects of boundary emissivity and specular-diffuse reflection. The process is considered in a tree-dimensional convex bounded domain \(G\) with the boundary \(\Gamma\in C^{0,1} \), and the ray directions are associated with points of the unit sphere \(\Omega =\{\omega\in\mathbb{R}^3:|\omega |=1\}\). Further, the authors consider the conductive-convective steady-state heat transfer equation with some boundary condition. They reduce the problem under consideration to a second-order differential equation, \[ -\alpha \triangle\varphi (r) + \kappa_{a}\varphi (r) = \kappa_{a}\theta^{4}(r), \] where \(\alpha =(3\kappa - A\kappa_{S})^{-1}\). The main result is that under some conditions there exists at least one \(\theta \) and at least a weak solution \(\varphi \). Note these quantities \(\varphi , \theta \) are bonded in \(L^2(G)\). The uniqueness of the solution is proved as well.