Short-pulsed laser transport in two-dimensional scattering media by natural element method

The natural element method (NEM) is extended to solve transient radiative transfer (TRT) in two-dimensional semitransparent media subjected to a collimated short laser irradiation. The least-squares (LS) weighted residuals approach is employed to spatially discretize the transient radiative heat transfer equation. First, for the case of the refractive index matched boundary, LSNEM solutions to TRT are validated by comparison with results reported in the literature. Effects of the incident angle on time-resolved signals of transmittance and reflectance are investigated. Afterward, the accuracy of this algorithm for the case of the refractive index mismatched boundary is studied. Finally, the LSNEM is extended to study the TRT in a two-dimensional semitransparent medium with refractive index discontinuity irradiated by the short pulse laser. The effects of scattering albedo, optical thickness, scattering phase function, and refractive index on transmittance and reflectance signals are investigated. Several interesting trends on the time-resolved signals are observed and analyzed. (c) 2014 Optical Society of America