Premium
Modelling the effect of particle size, shape and orientation of light transfer through porous media
Author(s) -
Bänninger D.,
Lehmann P.,
Flühler H.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
european journal of soil science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.244
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1365-2389
pISSN - 1351-0754
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2389.2005.00787.x
Subject(s) - radiative transfer , optics , ray tracing (physics) , transmittance , scattering , porous medium , beam (structure) , light scattering , distributed ray tracing , materials science , tracing , physics , computational physics , porosity , computer science , composite material , operating system
Summary In this study, we present a radiative‐transfer model to simulate reflectance and transmittance of light by soil slabs. The radiative‐transfer model implemented, referred to as the beam‐tracing model, uses cross‐sectional images of scattering media to describe the geometry of the soil, i.e. soil texture and structure. This model traces the optical path of incident beams through such cross‐sectional images. Tracing many light beams simulates the reflected and transmitted light intensities for the media. The accuracy of the beam‐tracing model was tested by comparing its predictions with those of analytical solutions and with experimentally measured reflectance and transmittance data of soil samples. We implemented this model to explain the systematic deviation between measured data and those calculated with the four‐flux model applied in Bänninger (2004). With the beam‐tracing model, we show that the small systematic inaccuracies of the four‐flux model are caused by the simplified description of the geometry of the scattering medium. The beam‐tracing model can be used to describe various optical properties of particulate media. As an application, we calculated the decrease of light intensity with depth.