A Time-Domain, Finite-Volume Treatment for the Maxwell Equations

ABSTRACT For computation of electromagnetic scattering from layered objects, the differential form of the time-domain Maxwell's equations are first cast in a conservation form and then solved using a finite-volume discretization procedure derived from proven Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) methods 1 . The formulation accounts for any variations in the material properties (time, space, and frequency dependent), and can handle thin resistive sheets and lossy coatings by positioning them at finite-volume cell boundaries. The time-domain approach handles both continuous wave (single frequency) and pulse (broadband frequency) incident excitation. Arbitrarily shaped objects are modeled by using a body-fitted coordinate transformation. For treatment of complex internal/external structures with many material layers, a multizone framework with ability to handle any type of zonal boundary conditions (perfectly conducting, flux through, zero flux, periodic, nonreflecting outer boundary, resistive card, and lossy ...