Diffusion approximation in a radiative transfer model for astrophysical flows

Abstract

In this work, we present the diffusion approximation model for radiative transfer when we deal with optically thick astrophysical flows. Since the initial model is high CPU time demanding when dealing with its numerical approximation, solving this simpler system can provide a low cost strategy for the simulation of radiative media. We then use a finite-volume algorithm coupled with an implicit scheme for radiative contributions to solve this simplified system. Numerical experiments in the one-dimensional and two dimensional cases are presented to validate our numerical strategy and to prove the relevance of this asymptotic model.