Resolved Order of Scattering for the Solution of Radiative Transfer Equation

Abstract

The solution of the radiative transfer equation (RTE) becomes complicated when the participating medium is scattering and/or the boundary walls are reflecting. To reduce the complexity, the resolved order of scattering (ROS) formulation described in this paper separates the radiative intensities being solved by RTE into a series of intensities corresponding to different orders of the scattering and reflection events. The resulting equation of transfer for each order of radiative intensity is not only much simpler to solve but also represents the physical scattering/reflection processes that are hidden in the original full RTE. The ROS formulation provides a mathematically rigorous and elegant means of solving RTE for strong scattering media with or without reflecting boundaries. Sample calculations are presented for a droplet-laden, 3D enclosure with strong anisotropic scattering.