On the Stability of the Ahrens-Larsen or SMC Equations for Thermal Radiative Transfer

摘要

We have shown that the SMC equations are only con-ditionally stable. Specifically, for q large and for large val-ues of △_t, temporal temperature oscillations develop that prevent the equations from reaching an equilibrium con-dition. Since q = aT_0~3/C_v this implies that practition-ers of this method should be careful for problems contain-rning small specific heats or large equilibrium temperatures. More pragmatically, if one insists on unconditional stabil-ity, then the SMC equations should be avoided.