An efficient high order plane wave time domain algorithm for transient electromagnetic scattering analysis

An efficient high order plane wave time domain algorithm is presented for analyzing the transient scattering from three dimensional electrically large conducting objects. This method uses a set of hierarchical divergence-conforming vector basis functions to accurately represent the current distribution on the perfect electrically conducting (PEC) surface. The higher order functions can significantly reduce the number of unknowns without compromise on the accuracy. The time domain combined field integral equation (TD-CFIE) is then discretized using the hierarchical divergence-conforming vector basis functions and shifted Lagrange polynomial functions in spatial and time domain, respectively. The final matrix equation can be accelerated using the plane wave time domain (PWTD) algorithm. Finally, a parallel algorithm that can execute on a distributed-memory parallel cluster is developed, which provides an appealing avenue for analyzing the transient scattering from three-dimensional electrically large complex PEC objects. Numerical examples are given to demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the method.