Radiative heat exchange of spherical particles with metal and insulator plates

Radiative heat exchange of spherical particles between each other and with thick polarizable plates is studied in the framework of fluctuation electrodynamics. An additive dipole approximation for the thermal conductance of micrometer sized particles is proposed. The numerical calculations are performed for particles and plates made of gold and silica. Several theoretical models of radiative conductance are compared and juxtaposed with the known experimental data.