Prediction of radiative transfer in cylindrical enclosures with the finite volume method

This article shows how the finite volume method can be implemented to solve three-dimensional radiation problems in cylindrical enclosures. The medium is considered to be gray, and absorption, emission, and either isotropic or nonisotropic scattering are included. For the special case of axisymmetric radiation, a mapping is described that yields a complete solution by solving the intensity in a single azimuthal direction. The method is shown to rapidly converge to the solution of the radiation transfer equation as the spatial and directional grid is refined. Results from the solution of axisymmetric bench mark problems show that the method is stable, accurate, and computationally efficient. 25 refs.