Radiative heat transfer in a planar medium with anisotropic scattering and directional boundaries

Radiation heat transfer in an absorbing, emitting and scattering medium has been the subject of many previous investigations. Most solutions are numerically complex and the existing analytical solutions are restricted in application by the simplifying assumptions involved. A plane-parallel medium is considered which scatters anisotropically. The boundaries are considered to be specular reflectors, as predicted by Fresnel's relations, while the diffusely incident radiation is refracted according to Snell's law. The emission is restricted to a medium with a uniform temperature distribution. Approximate closed-form solutions for the radiative heat flux and incident intensity are presented for dielectric layers and linear anisotropic scattering. Numerical results are also presented and show that the effects of directional boundaries, anisotropic scattering, scattering albedo and optical depth are accurately predicted by the approximate solution.