Differential approximations for transient radiative transfer in refractive planar media with pulse irradiation

Transient radiative transfer in an anisotropically scattering refractive planar medium with pulse irradiation is solved by various approximation methods, such as P−1, P−1 parabolic, P1/3 and two-flux. The time-resolved transmittance and reflectance are calculated for various radiative parameters, and are compared with those obtained by the discrete ordinate method (DOM). Among the approximation methods considered, the P1/3 approximation is the better one, because its results are in overall good agreement with those obtained by the more rigorous DOM, except the transmittance around the peak for neither thin nor very thick slabs. It is found that the curved paths of radiation and the internal reflection of the back scattered radiation enhance the effect of scattering.