A hybrid finite volume/finite element discretization method for the solution of the radiative heat transfer equation

A new method based on a hybrid finite volume/finite element discretization of the radiative transfer equation is described and applied to multi-dimensional rectangular enclosures with gray absorbing-emitting-scattering media. The spatial discretization is carried out using the finite volume method and the angular discretization is performed using basis functions commonly employed in the finite element method. The predicted results for two- and three-dimensional enclosures are compared with analytical solutions and show that the numerical solution converges to the analytical one as the discretization is refined