Finite element-boundary integral formulation for electromagnetic scattering

Abstract A new formulation is described which combines the most robust attributes of the volume finite element and surface integral equation approaches to electromagnetic boundary value solutions. The result is a numerical technique which may be applied to scattering problems involving configurations having metallic surfaces and inhomogeneous penetrable material situated in open spatial regions. This is accomplished by way of coupling internal region finite element modal field solutions to equivalent currents on the surrounding boundary surface through an appropriate surface integral equation. The method is demonstrated for the special case of scattering by axisymmetric inhomogeneous penetrable objects. Example numerical calculations are presented for validation of the procedure and potential problem areas are discussed.