A spectral representation solution for electromagnetic scattering from complex structures

Abstract

Significant effort has been directed towards improving computational efficiency in calculating radiated or scattered fields from a complex structure over a broad frequency band. The formulation and solution of boundary integral equation methods in commercial and scientific software has seen considerable attention; methods presented in the literature are often abstract, “curve-fits” or lacking a sound foundation in the underlying physics of the problem. Anomalous results are often characterized incorrectly, or require user expertise for analysis, a clear disadvantage in a computer-aided design tool. This dissertation documents an investigation into the motivating theory, limitations and integration into SuperNEC of a technique for the analytical, continuous, wideband description of the response of a complex conducting body to an electromagnetic excitation. The method, referred to by the author as Transfer Function Estimation (TFE) has its foundations in the Singularity Expansion Method (SEM). For scattering and radiation from a perfect electric conductor, the Electric-Field Integral Equation (EFIE) and Magnetic-Field Integral Equation (MFIE) formulations in their Stratton-Chu form are used. Solution by spectral representation methods including the Singular Value Decomposition (SVD), the Singular Value Expansion (SVE), the Singular Function Method (SFM), Singularity Expansion Method (SEM), the Eigenmode Expansion Method (EEM) and Model-Based Parameter Estimation (MBPE) are evaluated for applicability to the perfect electric conductor. The relationships between them and applicability to the scattering problem are reviewed. A common theoretical basis is derived. The EFIE and MFIE are known to have challenges due to ill-posedness and uniqueness considerations. Known preconditioners present possible solutions. The Modified EFIE (MEFIE) and Modified Combined Integral Equation (MCFIE) preconditioner is shown to be consistent with the fundamental derivations of the SEM. Prony’s method applied to the SEM poleresidue approximation enables a flexible implementation of a reduced-order method to be defined, for integration into SuperNEC. The computational expense inherent to the calculation of the impedance matrix in SuperNEC is substantially reduced by a physically-motivated approximation based on the TFE method. iv Using an adaptive approach and relative error measures, SuperNEC iteratively calculates the best continuous-function approximation to the response of a conducting body over a frequency band of interest. The responses of structures with different degrees of resonant behaviour were evaluated: these included an attack helicopter, a log-periodic dipole array and a simple dipole. Remarkable agreement was achieved.