Spatial second-order positive and asymptotic preserving filtered PN schemes for nonlinear radiative transfer equations.

A spatial second-order scheme for the nonlinear radiative transfer equations is introduced in this paper. The discretization scheme is based on the filtered spherical harmonics (F P N) method for the angular variable and the unified gas kinetic scheme (UGKS) framework for the spatial and temporal variables respectively. In order to keep the scheme positive and second-order accuracy, firstly, we use the implicit Monte Carlo (IMC) linearization method [7] in the construction of the UGKS numerical boundary fluxes. This is an essential point in the construction. Then, by carefully analyzing the constructed second-order fluxes involved in the macro-micro decomposition, which is induced by the F P N angular discretization, we establish the sufficient conditions that guarantee the positivity of the radiative energy density and material temperature. Finally, we employ linear scaling limiters for the angular variable in the P N reconstruction and for the spatial variable in the piecewise linear slopes reconstruction respectively, which are shown to be realizable and reasonable to enforce the sufficient conditions holding. Thus, the desired scheme, called the P P F P N -based UGKS, is obtained. Furthermore, we can show that in the regime ϵ ≪ 1 and the regime ϵ = O (1) , the second-order fluxes can be simplified. And, a simplified spatial second-order scheme, called the P P F P N -based SUGKS, is thus presented, which possesses all the properties of the non-simplified one. Inheriting the merit of UGKS, the proposed schemes are asymptotic preserving. By employing the F P N method for the angular variable, the proposed schemes are almost free of ray effects. Moreover, the above-mentioned way of imposing the positivity would not destroy both AP and second-order accuracy properties. To our best knowledge, this is the first time that spatial second-order, positive, asymptotic preserving and almost free of ray effects schemes are constructed for the nonlinear radiative transfer equations without operator splitting. Therefore, this paper improves our previous work on the first-order scheme [42] which could not be directly extended to high order, while keeping the solution positive. Various numerical experiments are included to validate the properties of the proposed schemes. • A spatial second-order FPN scheme with both AP and PP properties is developed for nonlinear radiative transfer equations. • The scheme is almost free of ray effects, and meanwhile can reduce the Gibbs phenomena in the PN approximation. • The IMC linearization method is used in the construction of the UGKS numerical fluxes to make the solution positive. • A simplified scheme with all properties of the non-simplified one is proposed in regimes ϵ ≪ 1 and ϵ = O (1) to reduce the computational costs. • Numerical experiments have validated the spatial second-order accuracy, AP, PP and almost ray effects free properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]