Matrix Albedo for Discrete Ordinates Infinite-medium Boundary Condition

Discrete ordinates problems with an infinite exterior medium (reflector) can be more efficiently computed by eliminating grid cells in the exterior medium and applying a matrix albedo boundary condition. The albedo matrix is a discretized bidirectional reflection distribution function (BRDF) that accounts for the angular quadrature set, spatial quadrature method, and spatial grid that would have been used to model a portion of the exterior medium. The method is exact in slab geometry, and could be used as an approximation in multiple dimensions or curvilinear coordinates. We present an adequate method for computing albedo matrices and demonstrate their use in verifying a discrete ordinates code in slab geometry by comparison with Ganapol’s infinite medium semianalytic TIEL benchmark. With sufficient resolution in the spatial and angular grids and iteration tolerance to yield solutions converged to 6 digits, the conventional (scalar) albedo boundary condition yielded 2-digit accuracy at the boundary, but the matrix albedo solution reproduced the benchmark scalar flux at the boundary to all 6 digits.