This article deals with the transport of a train of short-pulse radiation through a 2-D rectangular participating medium, The diffuse as well as collimated incident short-pulse radiations are considered. Temporal profile at the boundary of incidence is a step function. The pulse train consists of 1-4 pulses. The homogeneous participating medium is absorbing, and scattering. Both diffuse and collimated pulse trains with pulse width of the order of a nano-second are considered. Transmittance and reflectance signals are analyzed for the effects of the extinction coefficient and the scattering albedo. Heat flux distributions inside the medium are also studied. The finite volume method is used to solve the problem. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.