Including the effects of temperature-dependent opacities in the implicit Monte Carlo algorithm

Journal Article · Wed Jun 01 04:00:00 EDT 2011 · Journal of Computational Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcp.2011.03.029· OSTI ID:21499748

The Implicit Monte Carlo technique of Fleck and Cummings is often employed to numerically simulate radiative transfer. This method achieves greater stability than one with a fully explicit time discretization by estimating the t{sup n+1} value of T{sup 4} from the thermal emission term, which is proportional to T{sup 4}. In the Fleck and Cummings algorithm, this results in decreasing the absorption by the so-called 'Fleck factor', and adding a corresponding amount of effective scattering. We show how to include the effects of the temperature-dependent opacity to the estimated t{sup n+1} value of the thermal emission term. This results in the addition to the 'Fleck factor' of a term that depends on (d{sigma})/(dT) . We demonstrate that this modification allows for more accurate solutions with much larger time steps for problems with opacities that have a strong temperature dependence.

• OSTI ID: 21499748
• Journal Information: Journal of Computational Physics, Journal Name: Journal of Computational Physics Journal Issue: 12 Vol. 230; ISSN JCTPAH; ISSN 0021-9991
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING
ALGORITHMS
CALCULATION METHODS
ENERGY TRANSFER
HEAT TRANSFER
MATHEMATICAL LOGIC
MATHEMATICAL SOLUTIONS
MONTE CARLO METHOD
RADIANT HEAT TRANSFER
TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE