Techniques for the computation of radiative heating from aluminized so
lid propellant rocket exhaust plumes must account for infrared emissio
n and absorption by hot H2O and CO2 in the presence of strong three-di
mensional aerosol scattering by micron-sized Al2O3 droplets and partic
les. Radiative heating computations are usually performed over wide sp
ectral intervals using infrared band models. However, no rigorous exte
nsion to infrared band models has been proposed for situations with sc
attering. Indeed, band models and scattering are widely held to be inc
ompatible. Practical engineering calculations of plume radiative heati
ng have therefore proceeded, using various approximations to the trans
port equation. Although the errors in these approximations are believe
d to be reasonably small, they have never been quantified because of t
he lack of rigorous results. In order to help remedy this deficiency,
this article develops two different rigorous solutions. Although they
are currently restricted to homogeneous media, they nevertheless provi
de a previously unavailable means or calibrating code performance and
assessing the accuracy of various approximation schemes. Some sample a
pplications are provided for the Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster.