Integral equation method in problems of electromagnetic-wave reflection from inhomogeneous interfaces between media

Problems on reflection of a plane electromagnetic wave from various irregular interfaces between media are studied by the integral equation method in the cases of two- and three-dimensional incident electromagnetic field. The reflecting surfaces are meant as periodic transparent interfaces between two media and plane boundaries with locally inhomogeneous and transparent sections. The boundary value problems for the system of Maxwell’s equations in an infinite domain with an irregular boundary are reduced to Fredholm or singular integral equations, depending on the problem considered. Numerical algorithms for solving such integral equations are developed. Results of calculation of currents induced on inhomogeneities and characteristics of the electric field in the far zone are presented.Problems on reflection of a plane electromagnetic wave from various irregular interfaces between media are studied by the integral equation method in the cases of two- and three-dimensional incident electromagnetic field. The reflecting surfaces are meant as periodic transparent interfaces between two media and plane boundaries with locally inhomogeneous and transparent sections. The boundary value problems for the system of Maxwell’s equations in an infinite domain with an irregular boundary are reduced to Fredholm or singular integral equations, depending on the problem considered. Numerical algorithms for solving such integral equations are developed. Results of calculation of currents induced on inhomogeneities and characteristics of the electric field in the far zone are presented.     

A comparison of integral equations with unique solution in theresonance region for scattering by conducting bodies

A comparison of integral equations, for problems involving scattering by arbitrary-shape conducting bodies, having a unique solution in the resonance region is presented. The augmented electric and magnetic field integral equations and the combined field integral equation, in their exact and approximate versions, are considered. The integral equations and the basis and test functions used in the method of moments to solve them are reviewed. Their implementation in a computer code is analyzed, mainly the relation between the matrix properties and the CPU time and memory. Numerical results (condition number and backscattering cross section) are presented for the cube. It is shown that the combined field integral equation, and the approximate (symmetric) combined field integral equation, are the most efficient equations to use in the neighborhood of resonant frequencies, because the overdetermined augmented integral equations require an extra matrix multiplication     

Transmission through axisymmetric, cascaded cylindrical cavities coupled by Apertures - part II: structures with varying cross-sections

A technique is described for determining the field in a series of cascaded, axisymmetric cylindrical cavities excited by a /spl phi/-independent source. The constituent cavities are axisymmetric but may have a cross-section that varies with axial displacement. A set of coupled integral equations are solved for the unknown electric fields in the apertures that separate the constituent cavities. Separate integral equations are formulated to determine the field in each cavity with a variable cross-section.     

A new approach to the thin scatterer problem using the hybrid equations

A new set of integral equations for electromagnetic scattering problems, the "hybrid" equations, is presented. The advantages of these equations for thin perfect conductors are discussed in comparison to the magnetic and electric field integral equations. Specific comparisons are made with the solution of the electric field integral equation for a finite hollow cylinder. It is demonstrated that the primary advantage of these equations is obtained by minimizing the coupling between component equations for the two surface currents.     

A constrained conjugate gradient method for solving the magnetic field boundary integral equation

It is well-known that electromagnetic solutions of boundary integral equations for perfectly electrically conducting scatterers are nonunique for those frequencies which correspond to interior resonances of the scatterer. In this paper a simple and efficient computational method is developed, in which the interior integral representations, required to hold on an interior closed surface, are used as a sufficient constraint to restore uniqueness. We use the interior equations together with the second kind magnetic field integral equation, so that the ill-posedness of the interior equations does not give a problem. We develop a constrained conjugate gradient method that minimizes a cost functional consisting of two terms. The first term is the error norm with respect to the magnetic field boundary integral equation, while the second term is the error norm with respect to the interior equations over a closed interior surface, which is chosen as small as possible. Some numerical examples show the robustness and efficiency of the pertaining computational procedure.     

Numerical Analysis of Arbitrarily Shaped Bodies Modeled by Surface Patches

Numerical modeling techniques for arbitrarily shaped conducting bodies using triangular surface patches are presented. Computer codes based on the magnetic field integral equations, the electric field integral equations, the reaction integral equations were developed, tested with various degrees of success.     

Applications of differential forms to boundary integral equations

In this paper we discuss the application of differential forms to integral equations arising in the study of electromagnetic wave propagation. The usual Stratton-Chu integral equations are derived in terms of differential forms and corresponding Galerkin formulations are constructed. All numerical schemes require the specification of basis functions and the use of differential forms provides a very general method for the construction of arbitrary order basis functions on curvilinear geometries. It is noted that the lowest order approximations on flat geometries reduce to forms essential equivalent to the standard Rao-Wilton-Glisson functions. The effect on accuracy is investigated for electric field integral equation and magnetic field integral equation formulations for a range of bases. Hierarchical classes of functions are also developed, as are transition elements useful in p-adaptive schemes where variable orders of approximation are sought.     

Scattering by arbitrarily cross-sectioned layered, lossy dielectric cylinders

The scattering properties of TM or TE illuminated lossy dielectric cylinders of arbitrary cross section are analyzed by the surface integral equation techniques. The surface integral equations are formulated via Maxwell's equations, Green's theorem, and the boundary conditions. The unknown surface fields on the boundaries are then calculated by flat-pulse expansion and point matching. Once the surface fields are found, scattered field in the far-zone and radar cross section (RCS) are readily determined. RCS thus obtained for circular homogeneous dielectric cylinders and dielectric coated conducting cylinders are found to have excellent agreements with the exact eigenfunction expansion results. Extension to arbitrary cross-sectioned cylinders are also obtained for homogeneous lossy elliptical cylinders and wedge-semicircle cross-sectioned cylinders, with and without a conducting cylinder in its center. RCS dependences on frequency and conductivity as well as the matrix stability problem of this surface integral equation method are also examined.     

Current induced by TE excitation on a conducting cylinder located near the planar interface between two semi-infinite half-spaces

An analysis is presented for determining the current induced by a known transverse electric excitation on a perfectly conducting cylinder located near the planar interface separating two semi-infinite, homogeneous half-spaces of different electromagnetic properties. The conducting cylinder of general cross section is of infinite extent and the excitation is transverse electric to the cylinder axis. Two types of integral equations, the magnetic field integral equation and the electric field integral equation, are formulated, and the Green's functions for the integral equations are derived in an appendix. Numerical solution methods for solving the integral and integrodifferential equations are presented. For a strip parallel or perpendicular to the interface, a circular cylinder, and a rectangular cylinder, data are presented and discussed for selected parameters, including the case of a cylinder resting on the interface.     

Considerations on Matrix Methods and Estimation of Their Errors

Two-dimensional field equations are reduced to Fredholm integral equations of the second kind. The integral equations are solved by matrix methods. The convergence of the matrix solutions is discussed. The matrix methods are applied to calculating the cutoff wavenumbers of waveguides. A method of estimating the errors is proposed. A method of correcting the matrix solutions is described and applied to a field problem in which the boundary is large compared with the wavelength. It is pointed out that for the commonest method of solving integral equations numerically (the method of subsections), the accuracy depends strongly on the position in each subsection of the point to which the field is referred. The dependence of the error on position is examined quantitatively.     

Integral equation solution for analyzing scattering fromone-dimensional periodic coated strips

A set of integral equations based on the surface/surface formulation are developed for analyzing electromagnetic scattering by one-dimensional periodic structures. To compare the accuracy, efficiency, and robustness of the formulation, the electric field integral equation (EFIE), magnetic field integral equation (MFIE), and combined field integral equation (CFIE) are developed for analyzing the same structure for different excitations. Due to the periodicity of the structure, the integral equations are formulated in the spectral domain using the Fourier transform of the integrodifferential operators. The generalized-biconjugate-gradient-fast Fourier transform method with subdomain basis functions is used to solve the matrix equation     

Mathematical foundations for error estimation in numericalsolutions of integral equations in electromagnetics

The problem of error estimation in the numerical solution of integral equations that arise in electromagnetics is addressed. The direct method (Green's theorem or field approach) and the indirect method (layer ansatz or source approach) lead to well-known integral equations both of the first kind [electric field integral equations (EFIE)] and the second kind [magnetic field integral equations (MFIE)]. These equations are analyzed systematically in terms of the mapping properties of the integral operators. It is shown how the assumption that field quantities have finite energy leads naturally to describing the mapping properties in appropriate Sobolev spaces. These function spaces are demystified through simple examples which also are used to demonstrate the importance of knowing in which space the given data lives and in which space the solution should be sought. It is further shown how the method of moments (or Galerkin method) is formulated in these function spaces and how residual error can be used to estimate actual error in these spaces. The condition number of all of the impedance matrices that result from discretizing the integral equations, including first kind equations, is shown to be bounded when the elements are computed appropriately. Finally, the consequences of carrying out all computations in the space of square integrable functions, a particularly friendly Sobolev space, are explained     

On volume integral equations

The focus of this paper is on the volume integral representations to be used in constructing integral equations for composite volume media. The major thrust of the paper is to identify where derivatives of a discontinuous function arise in the derivation of the volume representation. Three different derivation methods are presented, resulting in identical representation independent of the derivation method. These representations agree with some in the existing literature and disagree with others. When an electric field formulation is considered, the source of disagreement manifests itself only when magnetic materials are present. Likewise, for the dual situation, the inconsistency appears for a magnetic field formulation of dielectric materials. This paper identifies the sources of error in the incorrect representations and its major contribution is the rigorously correct derivation of the representations to be used in volume integral equations. We also present numerical results for an integral equation derived from our representation. The numerical results employ only the E-field as the unknown and the singularity is handled in a manner analogous to a standard numerical treatment of the electric field integral equation.     

Extended boundary condition integral equations for perfectly conducting and dielectric bodies: Formulation and uniqueness

The equivalence theorem is used to derive novel generalized boundary condition (GBC) integral equations for the tangential components of the electric and magnetic fields on the interfaces of a finite number of dielectric or conducting scatterers. Closed surface, plane, and line extended boundary conditions (EBC) equivalent to the GBC are introduced. The GBC integral equations can now be replaced by any of these EBC integral equations whose solutions are unique and easy to obtain numerically using the moment method. A perfectly conducting sphere and a dielectric sphere in the electrostatic field of two equal and opposite point charges are presented as simple examples of the general procedure.     

A new well-conditioned Integral formulation for Maxwell equations in three dimensions

We present a new boundary integral equation dedicated to the solution of the boundary problem of a perfectly electrically conducting surface for the harmonic Maxwell equations in unbounded domains. Any solution of the harmonic Maxwell equations is represented as the electromagnetic field generated by a combination of electric and magnetic potentials. These potentials are those appearing in the classical combined field integral equation (CFIE), but their coupling is realized by an operator Y/spl tilde//sup +/ instead of a coefficient. Therefore, the integral equation obtained can be viewed as a generalization of the CFIE. In this paper, we propose an explicit construction of the coupling operator Y/spl tilde//sup +/ which is designed to approximate the exterior admittance operator of the scattering obstacle. A local approximation by the admittance operator of the tangential plane seems to be relevant thanks to the localization effects related to high-frequency phenomena. The provided numerical simulations show that this formulation leads to linear systems that are better conditioned compared to more classical integral equations, which speeds up the resolution when solved with iterative techniques.     

Scattering by an arbitrary cylinder at a plane interface: broadsideincidence

The problem of the determination of the fields scattered by an infinite dielectric cylinder of arbitrary cross section located at the interface between two semi-finite dielectric media is reduced to the solution of integral equations for unknown functions defined on the boundaries. These boundary functions are chosen so as to minimize their number. The incident field is that of a plane monochromatic wave. The derivation of the integral equations is given for the transverse electric (TE) mode for a dielectric cylinder and for a perfectly conducting cylinder. The exact electromagnetic fields are obtained from the solutions of the integral equations by integration, and the radar cross section can be computed from the far-field approximation. Sample outputs of the computer programs that implement this solution are shown     

Analysis of transient electromagnetic scattering from closedsurfaces using a combined field integral equation

In the past, both the time-domain electric and magnetic field integral equations have been applied to the analysis of transient scattering from closed structures. Unfortunately, the solutions to both these equations are often corrupted by the presence of spurious interior cavity modes. In this article, a time-domain combined field integral equation is derived and shown to offer solutions devoid of any resonant components. It is anticipated that stable marching-on-in-time schemes for solving this combined field integral equation supplemented by fast transient evaluation schemes such as the plane wave time-domain algorithm will enable the analysis of scattering from electrically large closed bodies capable of supporting resonant modes     

Diffraction of plane waves by a resistive strip residing between two impedance half-planes

A uniform asymptotic solution is presented for the diffraction of E_z polarized plane waves by a resistive strip residing between two impedance half-planes. The analysis proceeds from triple integral equations approach which leads to a system of uncoupled modified Wiener-Hopf equations (MWHE). This system is then reduced to two pairs of Fredholm integral equations of the second kind which are solved by successive approximations. Diffracted field expressions are derived up to the third order terms which include the surface wave field effects in a uniform manner.     

A higher order parallelized multilevel fast multipole algorithm for3-D scattering

A higher order multilevel fast multipole algorithm (MLFMA) is presented for solving integral equations of electromagnetic wave scattering by three-dimensional (3-D) conducting objects. This method employs higher order parametric elements to provide accurate modeling of the scatterer's geometry and higher order interpolatory vector basis functions for an accurate representation of the electric current density on the scatterer's surface. This higher order scheme leads to a significant reduction in the mesh density, thus the number of unknowns, without compromising the accuracy of geometry modeling. It is applied to the electric field integral equation (EFIE), the magnetic field integral equation (MFIE), and the combined field integral equation (CFIE), using Galerkin's testing approach. The resultant numerical system of equations is then solved using the MLFMA. Appropriate preconditioning techniques are employed to speedup the MLFMA solution. The proposed method is further implemented on distributed-memory parallel computers to harness the maximum power from presently available machines. Numerical examples are given to demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the method as well as the convergence of the higher order scheme     

Electromagnetic scattering by indented screens

The problem of three dimensional electromagnetic scattering from a perfectly conducting screen with a bounded indentation is formulated as a system of boundary integral equations for the electric current density on the cavity wall and the interface between the cavity and free space. It is shown how the fictitious current density on the interface may be eliminated resulting in an integral equation of the second kind for the current density on the cavity wall only, with no integration over the infinite screen. In addition, integral representations are derived that represent the field everywhere in space in terms of the current density on the cavity wall only. Furthermore, asymptotic expressions for the far field are also presented. The equations and representations simplify considerably in the two-dimensional scalar case and results are presented for both TE and TM polarization