Spacecraft thermal control is entirely reliant upon radiative heat transfer for temperature regulation. Current methods are often static in nature and do not provide dynamic control of radiative heat transfer. As a result, modern spacecraft thermal control systems are typically 'cold-biased' with radiators that are larger than necessary for many operating conditions. Deploying a variable radiator as a thermal control technique in which the projected surface area can be adjusted to provide the appropriate heat loss for a given condition can reduce unnecessary heat rejection and reduce power requirements. However, the radiative behavior of the apparent surface representing the expanding/collapsing radiator changes in addition to the projected surface area size. This work experimentally quantifies the spectral, directional emissivity of an apparent surface comprised of a series of V-grooves (e.g. corrugated surface), as a function of angle and highlights its emission characteristics that trend toward black behavior. The experimental setup for quantifying this apparent radiative surface behavior is described and utilized to show the influence of surface geometry, direction and wavelength. The experimental design is validated and demonstrated using fully oxidized, nearly diffuse, copper, corrugated test samples. The results presented in this work demonstrate, for the corrugated oxidized copper surfaces tested, that (1) higher emissivity values correspond to higher wavelengths in the spectral range of 2.5 to 15.4 μm (2) apparent emissivity values increase with decreasing V-groove angle resulting in less spectral variation in emissivity and greater blackbody like behavior, (3) azimuth dependence can be relatively small despite the obvious pattern associated with a corrugated surface, (4) as the V-groove angle decreases, higher emissivity values are associated with θ→0° and ϕ→90°. Results provide a foundation for future radiator design, improved spacecraft thermal control methods, and improved emissivity testing methods for patterned or angular surfaces.

The bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) that describes the scattered energy distribution is the most fundamental radiative property to calculate other properties. Although recent progress in surface metrology allows topography measurement in an atomic level, most studies still assume statistical distributions of roughness because of difficulty in roughness modeling. If the BRDF of rough silicon wafers is modeled with assumptions, predicted radiative properties may be inaccurate because non-Gaussian and anisotropic roughness of some wafers cannot be approximated with known statistics. Therefore, this thesis focuses on development of BRDF modeling that accounts for anisotropic roughness to accurately predict radiative properties of rough silicon surfaces with thin-film coatings. Monte Carlo ray-tracing methods are developed to consider multiple scattering and the change of polarization states and to satisfy physical laws such as the reciprocity principle. Silicon surface topographic data measured with an atomic force microscope are incorporated into the ray-tracing algorithms to model anisotropic roughness statistics. For validation, BRDF and emittance predictions are compared with measurements using an optical scatterometer and an integrating sphere. Good agreement between prediction and measurement demonstrates that the incorporation of topography measurement into BRDF modeling is essential for accurate property prediction. Roughness effects on the BRDF are so strong that BRDFs also reveal anisotropic features regardless of the presence of coating. Anisotropic roughness increases multiple scattering although first-order scattering is dominant, and thus enhances emittance noticeably. Silicon dioxide coating changes the magnitude of BRDF and emittance and reduces the anisotropic roughness effect on emittance enhancement. The research in this thesis advances the method to predict radiative properties by incorporating anisotropic rough statistics into BRDF modeling.

A novel nonintrusive soot diagnostics methodology was developed, validated and applied for in-situ determination of temperature, volume fraction and refractive index of soot aggregates formed inside flames by using near-infrared emission spectrometry. Research was conducted in three main parts, first one addressing development and validation of a comprehensive &quot / direct&quot / model for simulation of line-of-sight radiative emission from axisymmetric sooty flames by coupling sub-models for radiative transfer, radiative properties and optical constants. Radiative property estimation for soot agglomerates was investigated by experimentally validating discrete dipole approximation against microwave measurements and using it as reference to assess applicability of simpler Rayleigh-Debye-Gans approximation for fractal aggregates (RDG-FA). Comparisons between predictions of two methods for soot-like model aggregates demonstrated that radiative property predictions of RDG-FA are acceptably accurate for relatively small soot aggregates encountered in small-scale flames. Part two concerns experimental investigation of an axisymmetric ethylene/air diffusion flame by Fourier Transform Near-Infrared spectroscopy. Measurement of line-of-sight emission intensity spectra was performed along with analyses on calibration, noise, uncertainty and reproducibility. A noise characterization approach was introduced to account for spatial fluctuations which were found to dominate over spectral noise. Final part focuses on development, evaluation and application of an inversion methodology that inputs spectral emission intensity measurements from optically thin flames, removes noise, identifies soot refractive index from spectral gradients and retrieves soot temperature and volume fraction fields by tomographic reconstruction. Validation with simulated data and favorable application to measurements indicate that proposed methodology is a promising option for nonintrusive soot diagnostics in flames.