Multiple scattering of light transmission in a smoke layer

Abstract The visibility in a fire scene decreases because of the existence of smoke produced by the flammable materials. With the growth of smoke concentration, the relationship between light and smoke becomes complicated due to the multiple scattering. In this paper, the radiative transfer equation (RTE) that considers the multiple scattering was applied to calculate the light transmission in a smoke layer. As input parameters of RTE, the single scattering albedo, asymmetry parameter and extinction cross section of single smoke agglomerate were calculated by the discrete dipole approximation (DDA) method. The effects of smoke agglomerate diameter, number density of smoke layer, and the incident light wavelength were considered. The results show that the light transmitted flux decreases with the growth of smoke diameter and number density, and increases with the growth of wavelength. The smoke diameter is dominant among the three parameters, and the light transmitted flux tends to be stable when the wavelength reaches a certain value.