Coupling heat conduction and radiative transfer

A method to compute combined heat conduction and radiative transfer in a se mitransparent medium is proposed. The heat equation is solved by an implici t finite-difference scheme and the radiation is simulated using a ray-traci ng method. Stability and convergence for the coupling of both methods is sh own. The crucial point for ray-tracing as well as for discrete-ordinate met hods is the selection of the transfer directions and their associated weigh ts. Using a model problem different direction sets proposed in the literatu re are compared with respect to their accuracy and the computational effort . (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.