John C. CHAI^*

Nanyang Technological University, School of Mechanical and Production Engineering, Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798

(Received January 27, 2003; Accepted October 9, 2003)

A finite-volume method for the modeling of transient photon propagation in turbid media with an irregularly shaped foreign object is presented. The procedure can account for non-rectangular foreign object. Body-fitted coordinates are used to discretize the spatial domain. Absorbing, anisotropic scattering non-homogenous medium can be modeled. The procedure is validated using existing numerical results for a homogenous medium. The procedure produces physically possible trends for different optical properties of the foreign object.

Key words: Transient photon transport, numerical method, finite-volume method

^*E-mail address: mckchai@ntu.edu.sg