Adequate modeling of thermal radiation is an essential tool for the design
of real-live combustion systems. Predictive methods for solving the radiati
ve heat transfer equation require the values of absorption and scattering c
oefficients of the participating media, In the present paper, a compromise
between accuracy and computational economy is ensured in the evaluation of
those coefficients, by using the exponential wide band model for the gaseou
s components of the mixture, a new curve fitting approach to the Mie theory
for intermediate and large particles and power series to represent the Mie
coefficients for small particles. Predicted results with those approaches
are presented herein to demonstrate the proposed models' high accuracy and
relatively low computational costs. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All righ
ts reserved.