Effectiveness of a Thermal Protective Coating for Automotive Components

Rubber components in the automotive industry are sometimes placed in environments where a radiant heat source leads to unacceptably high operating temperatures in the component.  One way to mitigate the detrimental high operating temperatures is to apply a thermal radiation barrier coating to the component.  A parametric modeling study was done to predict the change in steady state operating temperature of a rubber component that results from changing the surface thermal emissivity of the component by application of a coating.  The effect of the temperature of the radiant source, the view factor between the source and the component, as well as the convection conditions are studied and reported.  The emphasis is on elucidating those conditions under which this method of reducing operating temperature is most effective.