Stephanie Lohrengel

A singular field method for the solution of Maxwell's equations in polyhedral domains

It is well known that in the case of a regular domain the solution of the time-harmonic Maxwells equations allows a discretization by means of nodal finite elements: this is achieved by solving a regularized problem similar to the vector Helmholtz equation. The present paper deals with the same problem in the case of a nonconvex polyhedron. It is shown that a nodal finite element method does not approximate in general the solution to Maxwells equations, but actually the solution to a neighboring variational problem involving a different function space. Indeed, the solution to Maxwells equations presents singularities near the edges and corners of the domain that cannot be approximated by Lagrange finite elements.A new method is proposed involving the decomposition of the solution field into a regular part that can be treated numerically by nodal finite elements and a singular part that has to be taken into account explicitly. This singular field method is presented in various situations such as electri...

Weighted regularization for composite materials in electromagnetism

In this paper, a weighted regularization method for the time-harmonic Maxwell equations with perfect conducting or impedance boundary condition in composite materials is presented. The computational domain Ω is the union of polygonal or polyhedral subdomains made of different materials. As a result, the electromagnetic field presents singularities near geometric singularities, which are the interior and exterior edges and corners. The variational formulation of the weighted regularized problem is given on the subspace of H(curl;Ω) whose fields u satisfy wα div(eu) ∈ L 2(Ω) and have vanishing tangential trace or tangential trace in L2(δΩ). The weight function w(x) is equivalent to the distance of x to the geometric singularities and the minimal weight parameter α is given in terms of the singular exponents of a scalar transmission problem. A density result is proven that guarantees the approximability of the solution field by piecewise regular fields. Numerical results for the discretization of the source problem by means of Lagrange Finite Elements of type P1 and P2 are given on uniform and appropriately refined two-dimensional meshes. The performance of the method in the case of eigenvalue problems is addressed.

SINGULARITIES AND DENSITY PROBLEMS FOR COMPOSITE MATERIALS IN ELECTROMAGNETISM

ABSTRACT Necessary and sufficient conditions are found, which guarantee the density of piecewise regular vector fields in the subspace of whose elements satisfy and have their tangential trace in ; Ω being a polygonal domain of or a polyhedral domain of , union of J polygonal or polyhedral subdomains. The proof uses explicitly the singularities of a scalar transmission problem. Numerically, the result allows a discretization of Maxwells equations with an impedance boundary condition in composite materials by means of nodal, H1 -conforming, finite elements. When one of the above conditions is violated, we (mainly) characterize the complement of the space of piecewise regular vector fields.

Exact boundary controllability of the second-order Maxwell system: Theory and numerical simulation

The exact controllability of the second order time-dependent Maxwell equations for the electric field is addressed through the Hilbert Uniqueness Method. A two-grid preconditioned conjugate gradient algorithm is employed to inverse the H.U.M. operator and to construct the numerical control. The underlying initial value problems are discretized by Lagrange finite elements and an implicit Newmark scheme. Two-dimensional numerical experiments illustrate the performance of the method.

EEG in neonates: Forward modeling and sensitivity analysis with respect to variations of the conductivity

The paper is devoted to the analysis of electroencephalography (EEG) in neonates. The goal is to investigate the impact of fontanels on EEG measurements, i.e. on the values of the electric potential on the scalp. In order to answer this clinical issue, a complete mathematical study (modeling, existence and uniqueness result, realistic simulations) is carried out. A model for the forward problem in EEG source localization is proposed. The model is able to take into account the presence and ossification process of fontanels which are characterized by a variable conductivity. From a mathematical point of view, the model consists in solving an elliptic problem with a singular source term in an inhomogeneous medium. A subtraction approach is used to deal with the singularity in the source term, and existence and uniqueness results are proved for the continuous problem. Discretization is performed with 3D Finite Elements of type P1 and error estimates are proved in the energy norm (H¹-norm). Numerical simulations for a three-layer spherical model as well as for a realistic neonatal head model including or not the fontanels have been obtained and corroborate the theoretical results. A mathematical tool related to the concept of Gâteau derivatives is introduced which is able to measure the sensitivity of the electric potential with respect to small variations in the fontanel conductivity. This study attests that the presence of fontanels in neonates does have an impact on EEG measurements.