Spectrophotometric determination of the normal emissivity of coated flat glass Report of the International Commission on Glass Technical Committee 10 "Optical Properties of Glass"

Abstract

The results of the activity of TC 10 of the International Commission on Glass aimed at assessing the reproducibility and accuracy of the determination of normal emissivity from IR reflectance measurements with commercial spectrophotometers are presented. Eight European and American flat glass producers and two glass institutes participate in the activity. Two intercomparisons of near normal spectral reflectance are performed on 4 samples, representative of the current production. The circulated samples are subsequently calibrated in a metrological laboratory. The results show that even with a free integration procedure and reference mirror a satisfactory reproducibility can be achieved (the maximum discrepancy in computed U values between the participants being within 0.1 W/(m2 K)). The agreement significantly improves by using a common reference mirror, showing the importance of the availability of reference mirrors calibrated by some metrological source. After discussing the effect of the integration procedure on the resulting emissivity, a new 30 selected ordinates method is developed and transmitted to ISO (to be incorporated into the standard for the computation of the U values of double glazings).