Evaluation of Local Error Estimators for the RWG-Based EFIE

Several error estimators suitable for use with the adaptive refinement solution of the electric field integral equation (EFIE) are investigated. The estimators are evaluated using a series of test problems for which correlation coefficients and scatter plots are computed. In addition, two new discontinuity estimators are introduced based on the combination of the charge discontinuity with the current or current discontinuity. The evaluations show that simple discontinuity estimators are as accurate for adaptive refinement as the EFIE residual estimator, and are far more computationally efficient.