Harm van der Heijden and Joost van der Mullen 2002 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 35 2112 doi:10.1088/0022-3727/35/17/307
Harm van der Heijden and Joost van der Mullen
Show affiliationsA general ray-trace method for calculating the effects of radiative transfer in a control volume (CV) fluid code is presented. The method makes use of the structured CV grid of the fluid code, and is suited for geometries with a point or axis of symmetry. In particular, the specific equations for spherical and cylindrical (without z dependence) configurations are developed. The application of this method to local thermal equilibrium (LTE) and non-LTE plasma models is discussed. Various opportunities for sacrificing precision for calculation speed are pointed out.
As a case study, the effects of radiative transfer in a sulphur lamp are calculated. Since an LTE description of the molecular radiation yields a computed spectrum that differs significantly from a measured one, the possibility of a non-LTE vibrational distribution of the radiating S2-B state is investigated. The results indicate that the vibrational populations may be inversed.
Issue 17 (7 September 2002)
Received 20 May 2002
Published 16 August 2002
Harm van der Heijden and Joost van der Mullen 2002 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 35 2112
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