A comparative study of the application of differential evolution and simulated annealing in radiative transfer problems

• Main Author: Lobato,Fran Sérgio
• Publication Date: 2010
• Other Authors: Steffen Jr.,Valder, Silva Neto,Antônio J.
• Format: Article
• Language: eng
• Source: Journal of the Brazilian Society of Mechanical Sciences and Engineering (Online)
• Download full: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1678-58782010000500012
• topic: inverse problem; radiative transfer; Differential Evolution; Simulated Annealing

The radiative transfer phenomenon is modeled by an integro-differential equation known as Boltzmann equation. This equation describes mathematically the interaction of the radiation with the participating medium, i.e., a medium that may absorb, scatter and emit radiation. In this sense, this work presents a study regarding the estimation of radiative properties in a one-dimensional participating medium by using two optimization heuristic methods, namely Simulated Annealing and Differential Evolution. First, a review of these two optimization techniques is presented. The direct radiative transfer problem solution, which is required for both optimization techniques, is obtained by using the Collocation Method. Finally, case-studies are presented aiming at illustrating the efficiency of these methodologies in the treatment of inverse radiative transfer problems.