Effect of anisotropic scattering on radiative heat transfer in two-dimensional rectangular media

Effect of scattering on radiative heat transfer in two-dimensional rectangular media by the finite-volume method has been studied. Compared with the existing solutions, it shows that the result obtained by the finite-volume method is reliable. Furthermore, relative errors caused by the approximation that linear and nonlinear anisotropic scattering media is simplified to isotropic scattering media have been studied.     

Development and comparison of different spatial numerical schemes for the radiative transfer equation resolution using three-dimensional unstructured meshes

In the present work four different spatial numerical schemes have been developed with the aim of reducing the false-scattering of the numerical solutions obtained with the discrete ordinates (DOM) and the finite volume (FVM) methods. These schemes have been designed specifically for unstructured meshes by means of the extrapolation of nodal values of intensity on the studied radiative direction. The schemes have been tested and compared in several 3D benchmark test cases using both structured orthogonal and unstructured grids.     

Analysis of the characteristics of time-resolved signals for transient radiative transfer in scattering participating media

Transient radiative transfer (TRT) in one-dimensional (1-D) homogeneous and inhomogeneous media with ultra-short pulse laser irradiated is investigated by means of the finite volume method (FVM) in the present research. Comparing with the steady radiative transfer (SRT), the extra time-resolved information can be obtained in TRT. Meanwhile, the propagation speed of short-pulse laser and the geometric thickness of the media should be considered in the simulation of TRT problem besides the optical thickness. A new nondimensional number ζ=ct_p/L is presented. For the homogeneous media, the temporal signals would overlap one another with different combinations of the pulse duration and the thickness of the media with the same ζ. Furthermore, in two-layer media, the influence of the scattering albedo, optical thickness and the geometric thickness of the participating media on ‘dual-peak’ are studied thoroughly. The improved expression of the ‘local minimum’ in the ‘dual-peak’ and the interface location of the multi-layer media are provided.     

Modified finite volume method applied to radiative transfer in 2D complex geometries and graded index media

A modified finite volume method with unstructured triangular meshes is proposed to solve the RTE in 2D complex geometries and for graded index media. In such media, the RTE has an additional term corresponding to “angular redistribution”. This term is due to the change in the orientation of the direction of propagation for the radiation along curved optical paths. Some benchmark cases applied to a slab (1D) and a square cavity (2D) with linear and nonlinear refractive graded index are used to validate the new method. New results are presented for a disk with radial graded index.     

A three-dimensional finite elements approach for the coupled radiative transfer equation and diffusion approximation modeling in fluorescence imaging

During the last few years a quite large number of fluorescence molecular imaging applications have been reported in the literature, as one of the most challenging aspects in medical imaging is to “see” a tumor embedded into tissue, which is a turbid medium, by using fluorescent probes for tumor labeling. However, the forward solvers, required for the successful convergence of the inverse problem, are still lacking accuracy and time feasibility. Moreover, initialization of these solvers may be proven even more difficult than solving the inverse problem itself. This paper describes in depth a coupled radiative transfer equation and diffusion approximation model for solving the forward problem in fluorescence imaging. The theoretical confrontation of these solvers comprises the model deployment, its Galerkin finite elements approximation and the domain discretization scheme. Finally, a new optical properties mapping algorithm, based on super-ellipsoid models, is implemented, providing a fully automated simulation target construction within feasible time.     

Development of a finite element model for coupled radiative and conductive heat transfer in participating media

Considering the geometrical applicability, a finite element model (FEM) for coupled radiative-conductive heat transfer has been developed which is applicable to enclosures of arbitrary geometry in present research. The present work provides a solution of coupled heat transfer in a rectangular, cylindrical or annulus enclosure with black or gray walls containing an absorbing-emitting-scattering medium. It is also applied to study the influence of conductive/radiation coefficient, albedo and wall emissivity on the temperature distribution in the medium. Compared with the results available in other references, the present FEM has no limitation with respect to geometry and can predict the coupled radiative-conductive heat transfer in participating media accurately.     

On the solution of a vectorial radiative transfer equation in an arbitrary three-dimensional turbid medium with anisotropic scattering

The authors developed a numerical method of the boundary-value problem solution in the vectorial radiative transfer theory applicable to the turbid media with an arbitrary three-dimensional geometry. The method is based on the solution representation as the sum of an anisotropic part that contains all the singularities of the exact solution and a smooth regular part. The regular part of the solution could be found numerically by the finite element method that enables to extend the approach to the arbitrary medium geometry. The anisotropic part of the solution is determined analytically by the special form of the small-angle approximation. The method development is performed by the examples of the boundary-value problems for the plane unidirectional and point isotropic sources in a turbid medium slab.     

Analysis of combined conduction and radiation heat transfer in presence of participating medium by the development of hybrid method

The current study addresses the mathematical modeling aspects of coupled conductive and radiative heat transfer in the presence of absorbing, emitting and isotropic scattering gray medium within two-dimensional square enclosure. A blended method where the concepts of modified differential approximation employed by combining discrete ordinate method and spherical harmonics method, has been developed for modeling the radiative transport equation. The gray participating medium is bounded by isothermal walls of two-dimensional enclosure which are considered to be opaque, diffuse and gray. The effect of various influencing parameters i.e., radiation-conduction parameter, surface emissivity, single scattering albedo and optical thickness has been illustrated. The adaptability of the present method has also been addressed.     

The influence of anisotropic scattering on the radiative intensity in a gray, plane-parallel medium calculated by the DRESOR method

Even though there have been many ways to treat complex anisotropic scattering problems, in most of the cases only the radiation flux or its dimensionless data were provided, and radiative intensity with high directional resolution could merely be seen. In this paper, a comprehensive formulation for the DRESOR method was proposed to deal with the anisotropic scattering, emitting, absorbing, plane-parallel media with different boundary conditions. The method was validated by the data from literature and the integral formulation of RTE. The DRESOR value plays an important role in the DRESOR method, and how it is determined by the anisotropic scattering was demonstrated by some typical results. The intensities with high directional resolution at any point can be given by the present method. It was found that the scattering phase function has little effect on the intensity for thin optical thickness, for example, 0.1. And there is the largest boundary intensity for the medium with the largest forward scattering capability, and the smallest one with the largest backward scattering capability. An attractive phenomenon was observed that the scattering of the medium makes the intensity at boundary can not reach the blackbody emission capability with the same temperature, even if the optical thickness tends to very large. It was also revealed that the scattering of the medium does not mean it cannot alter the magnitude of the energy; actually, stronger scattering causes the energy to have more chance to be absorbed by the medium, and indirectly changes the energy magnitude in the medium. Finally, it is easy to deduce all the associated quantities such as the radiation flux, the incident radiation and the heat source from the intensity, just as done in literature.     

Modified finite-volume method based on a cell vertex scheme for the solution of radiative transfer problems in complex 3D geometries

A modified finite-volume method based on a cell vertex scheme was applied to solve radiative transfer problems within a participating medium of complex three-dimensional shaped domain. The computational spatial domain of interest was divided into four-node tetrahedron elements with unstructured meshes while the adopted formulation was combined with a closure relation based on an exponential scheme. The studied medium was assumed to be grey, non-scattering and was bounded by black surfaces. Our results were then compared with those found in other articles on the subject. The approach shows a very good level of performance for wall heat transfer evaluation. Accurate results were obtained on coarse computational meshes and solution errors were found to decrease with grid refinement.     

A domain decomposition method for two-phase transport model in the cathode of a polymer electrolyte fuel cell

Using Kirchhoff transformation, we develop a Dirichlet–Neumann alternating iterative domain decomposition method for a 2D steady-state two-phase model for the cathode of a polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC) which contains a channel and a gas diffusion layer (GDL). This two-phase PEFC model is represented by a nonlinear coupled system which typically includes a modified Navier–Stokes equation with Darcy’s drag as an additional source term of the momentum equation, and a convection–diffusion equation for the water concentration with discontinuous and degenerate diffusivity. For both cases of dry and wet gas channel, we employ Kirchhoff transformation and Dirichlet–Neumann alternating iteration with appropriate interfacial conditions on the GDL/channel interface to treat the jump nonlinearities in the water equation. Numerical experiments demonstrate that fast convergence as well as accurate numerical solutions are obtained simultaneously owing to the implementation of the above-described numerical techniques along with a combined finite element-upwind finite volume discretization to automatically control the dominant convection terms arising in the gas channel.