Nonlinear Iterative Projection Methods with Multigrid in Photon Frequency for Thermal Radiative Transfer

Abstract: This paper presents nonlinear iterative methods for the fundamental thermal radiative transfer (TRT) model defined by the time-dependent multifrequency radiative transfer (RT) equation and the material energy balance (MEB) equation. The iterative methods are based on the nonlinear projection approach and use multiple grids in photon frequency. They are formulated by the high-order RT equation on a given grid in photon frequency and low-order moment equations on a hierarchy of frequency grids. The material temperature is evaluated in the subspace of the lowest dimensionality from the MEB equation coupled to the effective grey low-order equations. The algorithms apply various multigrid cycles to visit frequency grids. Numerical results are presented to demonstrate convergence of the multigrid iterative algorithms in TRT problems with large number of photon frequency groups.