Journal of Computational Physics
| Hi-index | 31.45 |
When using polynomial expansions for the angular variables in the radiation transport equation, the usual procedure is to truncate the series by setting all higher order terms to zero. At low order, such simple closures may not give the optimum solution. This work tests alternate closures that scale either the time- or spatial-derivatives in the highest order equation. These scale factors can be chosen such that waves propagate at exactly the speed of light in optically thin media. Alternatively, they may be chosen to significantly improve the accuracy of low-order solutions with no additional computational cost. The same scaling procedure and scale factors work in one- and multi-dimensions. In multidimensions, reducing the order of a solution can save significant amounts of computer time.