Partial moment entropy approximation to radiative heat transfer

We extend the half moment entropy closure for the radiative heat transfer equations presented in Dubroca and Klar [B. Dubroca, A. Klar, Half moment closure for radiative transfer equations, J. Comput. Phys. 180 (2002) 584-596] and Turpault et al. [R. Turpault, M. Frank, B. Dubroca, A. Klar, Multigroup half space moment approximations to the radiative heat transfer equations, J. Comput. Phys. 198 (2004) 363-371] to multi-D. To that end, we consider a partial moment system with general partitions of the unit sphere closed by an entropy minimization principle. We give physical and mathematical reasons for this choice of model and study its properties. Several numerical examples in different physical regimes are presented. (c) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.