AN ALTERNATIVE MATHEMATICAL-MODELING FOR COUPLED CONDUCTION RADIATIONENERGY-TRANSFER PHENOMENON IN A SYSTEM OF N-GRAY BODIES SURROUNDED BYA VACUUM/

In this work the energy transfer process among N rigid, opaque and gra y bodies is considered. The energy transfer phenomenon takes place by conduction (inside each body) and by thermal radiation (among the boun daries of the bodies). All the bodies can emit and reflect thermal rad iant energy and, hence, at each point of each boundary, the reflected and the emitted thermal radiant energy coming from the N bodies of the system must be taken into account. This complex phenomenon, with infi nitely many practical applications, is described by a set of N partial differential equations coupled by a set of 2N non-linear equations de fined on the boundaries of the bodies. A new mathematical modelling fo r the phenomenon is proposed that allows the construction of the solut ion in an easy way and provides proofs of existence and uniqueness of the solution. Some inconveniences of the classical modelling are prese nted, providing an expressive support for the proposed new modelling.