Existing view factor program, RAVFAC, was modified to accept NASTRAN and/or RAVFAC surface descriptions. Output formatting was altered to produce view factor matrices which could be directly input to NASTRAN

Jackson, C. E., Jr.

Puccinelli, E. F.

English

NASA Technical Reports Server

April 1975	 B75-10032 
NASA TECH BRIEF S	 Goddard Space Flight Center 
NASA Tech Briefs announce new technology derived from the U.S. space program. They are issued to encourage 
commercial application. Tech Briefs are available on a subscription basis from the National Technical Information 
Service, Springfield, Virginia 22151. Requests for individual copies or questions relating to the Tech Brief program may 
be directed to the Technology Utilization Office, NASA, Code KT, Washington, D.C. 20546. 
View Factor Computer Program [VIEW] 
S
The problem: 
An automatic method of generating the large view 
factor matrices required for radiative NASTRAN 
(LAR-10822) thermal analyses was needed. 
The solution: 
A view factor program was developed which could 
efficiently interface with NASTRAN input require-
ments. 
How it's done: 
An existing view factor program, RAVFAC 
(MFS-21075), was modified to accept NASTRAN 
and/or RAVFAC surface descriptions. The output 
formatting was altered to produce view factor 
matrices which could be directly input to NASTRAN. 
Core and CPU usage improvements were also 
implemented, and several corrections were made to 
the automatic shading logic.
Notes: 
1. The program will compute view factors by contour 
integration and/or by finite difference (double 
summation) techniques. 
2. This program was written in FORTRAN IV (91%) 
and ASSEMBLER (9%) for the IBM 360 com-
puter. The original RAVFAC program was written 
for the UNIVAC 1108 computer. 1 Tiiii1iies concerning the programs should be 
directed to: 
COSMIC 
112 Barrow Hall 
University of Georgia 
Athens, Georgia 30601 
References: GSC-11910 (VIEW) 
LAR-10822 (NASTRAN) 
MFS-21075 (RAVFAC) 
Source: Clifton E. Jackson, Jr., and

Edward F. Puccinelli 
Goddard Space Flight Center

(GSC-11910) 
Categories: 09 (Mathematics and Information 
Sciences) 
03 (Physical Sciences) 
This document was prepared under the sponsorship of the National 	 Government assumes any liability resulting from the use of the 
Aeronautics and Space Administration. Neither the United States 	 information contained in this document, or warrants that such use 
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View factor computer program (VIEW)

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