Acceleration of the numerical solution for the radiative transfer equation using a modified relaxation factor: X-factor method

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to propose a novel relaxation modified factor to accelerate the numerical solution of the radiative transfer equation (RTE) with several high-resolution total variation diminishing schemes. The methodology proposed is denoted as the X-factor method.

Design/methodology/approach

The X-factor method was compared with the technique deferred-correction (DC) for the calculations of a two-dimensional cavity with absorting-emiting-scatteting gray media using the discrete ordinates method. Four parameters were considered to evaluate: the absorption coefficient, the emissivity of boundary surface, the scattering albedo and under-relaxation factor.

Findings

The results showed the central processing unit (CPU) time of X-factor method was lower than DC. The reductions of CPU time with the X-factor method were observed from 0.6 to 75.4%.

Originality/value

The superiority of the X-factor method over DC was showed with the reduction of CPU time of the numerical solution of RTE for evaluated cases.

Citation

Torres-Aguilar, C.E., Xamán, J., Moreno-Bernal, P., Hernández-Pérez, I., Zavala-Guillén, I. and Hernández-López, I.O. (2020), "Acceleration of the numerical solution for the radiative transfer equation using a modified relaxation factor: X-factor method", Engineering Computations, Vol. 37 No. 5, pp. 1823-1847. https://doi.org/10.1108/EC-05-2019-0210