A fast higher-order time-domain finite element-boundary integral method for 3-D electromagnetic scattering analysis

A novel hybrid time-domain finite element-boundary integral method for analyzing three-dimensional (3-D) electromagnetic scattering phenomena is presented. The method couples finite element and boundary integral field representations in a way that results in a sparse system matrix and solutions that are devoid of spurious modes. To accurately represent the unknown fields, the scheme employs higher-order vector basis functions defined on curvilinear tetrahedral elements. To handle problems involving electrically large objects, the multilevel plane-wave time-domain algorithm is used to accelerate the evaluation of the boundary integrals. Numerical results demonstrate the accuracy and versatility of the proposed scheme.