Research and Application in Finite Volume Time Domain Electromagnetics

摘要

The development of an accurate time-domain solution technique for Maxwell'sequations suitable for simulation of large radar ranges is described. This technique is a finite-volume method that maintains high-order accuracy on unstructured meshes that can be generated automatically. It is being applied to the RAMS site at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico, to help determine effects of the target support and the topography of the site on the measured radar return at low frequencies, up to 600MHz. Especially for low-observable targets, these effects may dominate the return. The report includes examples of the first application of the solution technique to large, unstructured 3D grids as well as a determination of the fields incident on the target and its support as the solution of a large 2D scattering problem. This 2D simulation extends over a distance of a few hundred feet in the direction of propagation and includes topographic details of the pit in which the target support is mounted. The simulations have been performed on massively parallel computer architectures, such as the IBM SP2, where the solution technique exhibits essentially ideal scaling with the number of processors used.