Cai-Cheng Lu

Multilevel fast multipole algorithm for electromagnetic scattering by large complex objects

The fast multipole method (FMM) and multilevel fast multipole algorithm (MLFMA) are reviewed. The number of modes required, block-diagonal preconditioner, near singularity extraction, and the choice of initial guesses are discussed to apply the MLFMA to calculating electromagnetic scattering by large complex objects. Using these techniques, we can solve the problem of electromagnetic scattering by large complex three-dimensional (3-D) objects such as an aircraft (VFY218) on a small computer.

Fast solution methods in electromagnetics

Various methods for efficiently solving electromagnetic problems are presented. Electromagnetic scattering problems can be roughly classified into surface and volume problems, while fast methods are either differential or integral equation based. The resultant systems of linear equations are either solved directly or iteratively. A review of various differential equation solvers, their complexities, and memory requirements is given. The issues of grid dispersion and hybridization with integral equation solvers are discussed. Several fast integral equation solvers for surface and volume scatterers are presented. These solvers have reduced computational complexities and memory requirements.

Solution of combined-field integral equation using multilevel fast multipole algorithm for scattering by homogeneous bodies

We present an accurate method of moments (MoM) solution of the combined field integral equation (CFIE) using the multilevel fast multipole algorithm (MLFMA) for scattering by large, three-dimensional (3-D), arbitrarily shaped, homogeneous objects. We first investigate several different MoM formulations of the CFIE and propose a new formulation, which is both accurate and free of interior resonances. We then employ the MLFMA to significantly reduce the memory requirement and computational complexity of the MoM solution. Numerical results are presented to demonstrate the accuracy and capability of the proposed method. The method can be extended in a straightforward manner to scatterers composed of different homogeneous dielectric and conducting objects.

On the formulation of hybrid finite-element and boundary-integral methods for 3-D scattering

This paper studies, in detail, a variety of formulations for the hybrid finite-element and boundary-integral (FE-BI) method for three-dimensional (3-D) electromagnetic scattering by inhomogeneous objects. It is shown that the efficiency and accuracy of the FE-BI method depends highly on the formulation and discretization of the boundary-integral equation (BIE) used. A simple analysis of the matrix condition number identifies the efficiency of the different FE-BI formulations and an analysis of weighting functions shows that the traditional FE-BI formulations cannot produce accurate solutions. A new formulation is then proposed and numerical results show that the resulting solution has a good efficiency and accuracy and is completely immune to the problem of interior resonance. Finally, the multilevel fast multipole algorithm (MLFMA) is employed to significantly reduce the memory requirement and computational complexity of the proposed FE-BI method.

Fast Illinois solver code (FISC)

FISC (Fast Illinois solver code), co-developed by the Center for Computational Electromagnetics, University of Illinois, and DEMACO, is designed to compute the RCS of a target described by a triangular-facet file. The problem is formulated using the method of moments (MoM), where the Rao, Wilton, and Glisson (1982) basis functions are used. The resultant matrix equation is solved iteratively by the conjugate gradient (CG) method. The multilevel fast multipole algorithm (MLFMA) is used to speed up the matrix-vector multiplication in the CG method. The complexities for both the CPU time per iteration and the memory requirements are of O(Nlog N), where N is the number of unknowns. A 2.4-million unknown problem is solved in a few hours on the SGI GRAY origin 2000 at NCSA of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

A coupled surface-volume integral equation approach for the calculation of electromagnetic scattering from composite metallic and material targets

A coupled surface-volume integral equation approach is presented fur the calculation of electromagnetic scattering from conducting objects coated with materials. Free-space Greens function is used in the formulation of both integral equations. In the method of moments (MoM) solution to the integral equations, the target is discretized using triangular patches for conducting surfaces and tetrahedral cells for dielectric volume. General roof-top basis functions are used to expand the surface and volume currents, respectively. This approach is applicable to inhomogeneous material coating, and, because of the use of free-space Greens function, it can be easily accelerated using fast solvers such as the multilevel fast multipole algorithm.

Incomplete LU preconditioning for large scale dense complex linear systems from electromagnetic wave scattering problems

We consider the preconditioned iterative solution of large dense linear systems, where the coefficient matrix is a complex valued matrix arising from discretizing the integral equation of electromagnetic scattering. For some scattering structures this matrix can be poorly conditioned. The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficiency of a class of incomplete LU (ILU) factorization preconditioners for solving this type of matrices. We solve the electromagnetic wave equations using the BiCG method with an ILU preconditioner in the context of a multilevel fast multipole algorithm (MLFMA). The novelty of this work is that the ILU preconditioner as constructed using the near part block diagonal submatrices generated from the MLFMA. Experimental results show that the ILU preconditioner reduces the number of BiCG iterations substantially, compared to the block diagonal preconditioner. The preconditioned iteration scheme also maintains the computational complexity of the MLFMA, and consequently reduces the total CPU time.

Sparse inverse preconditioning of multilevel fast multipole algorithm for hybrid Integral equations in electromagnetics

In computational electromagnetics, the multilevel fast multipole algorithm (MLFMA) is used to reduce the computational complexity of the matrix vector product operations. In iteratively solving the dense linear systems arising from discretized hybrid integral equations, the sparse approximate inverse (SAI) preconditioning technique is employed to accelerate the convergence rate of the Krylov iterations. We show that a good quality SAI preconditioner can be constructed by using the near part matrix numerically generated in the MLFMA. The main purpose of this study is to show that this class of the SAI preconditioners are effective with the MLFMA and can reduce the number of Krylov iterations substantially. Our experimental results indicate that the SAI preconditioned MLFMA maintains the computational complexity of the MLFMA, but converges a lot faster, thus effectively reduces the overall simulation time.

A fast algorithm based on volume integral equation for analysis of arbitrarily shaped dielectric radomes

The volume integral equation (VIE) combined with the multilevel fast multipole algorithm (MLFMA) is applied to analyze antenna radiation in the presence of dielectric radomes. In solving the VIE, the radome is modeled by small volume cells of tetrahedron or hexahedron shape so that three-dimensional (3-D) complex radomes can be modeled accurately. When the induced volume current is determined by the method of moments, the total radiation is calculated by adding the induced current radiation to that of the antenna in the absence of the radome. The application of MLFMA reduced the computational complexity to a lower order and hence electrically large-sized radomes are analyzed. Numerical results are compared with the analytical solution for spherical shells with dipole array as excitations. The radiation patterns of dipole arrays in the presence of ogive, cone, and hemisphere radomes are also presented.

Thin-stratified medium fast-multipole algorithm for solving microstrip structures

An accurate and efficient technique called the thin-stratified medium fast-multipole algorithm (TSM-FMA) is presented for solving integral equations pertinent to electromagnetic analysis of microstrip structures, which consists of the full-wave analysis method and the application of the multilevel fast multipole algorithm (MLFMA) to thin stratified structures. In this approach, a new form of the electric-field spatial-domain Greens function is developed in a symmetrical form which simplifies the discretization of the integral equation using the method of moments (MoM). The patch may be of arbitrary shape since their equivalent electric currents are modeled with subdomain triangular patch basis functions. TSM-FMA is introduced to speed up the matrix-vector multiplication which constitutes the major computational cost in the application of the conjugate gradient (CG) method. TSM-FMA reduces the central processing unit (CPU) time per iteration to O(N log N) for sparse structures and to O(N) for dense structures, from O(N/sup 3/) for the Gaussian elimination method and O(N/sup 2/) per iteration for the CG method. The memory requirement for TSM-FMA also scales as O(N log N) for sparse structures and as O(N) for dense structures. Therefore, this approach is suitable for solving large-scale problems on a small computer.