Efficient Analysis of Electromagnetic Scattering from Electrically Large Complex Objects by Using Phase-Extracted Basis Functions

Efficient analysis of electromagnetic-wave responses from electrically large complex objects is a crucial but difficult topic in many applications of electromagnetic engineering. Among various numerical methods, the Method of Moments (MoM) solves for surface- or volume-distributed equivalent currents, which are expanded in terms of basis functions. In this paper, the traveling-wave phase variation has been incorporated into the basis functions to enhance their capability of describing the equivalent surface currents induced over surfaces of perfect electric conductors (PECs). A rigorous derivation is first given as physical insight, to show that the induced surface current is composed of a traveling-wave term and several standing-wave terms. A phase-extracted basis function (PEBF) is then proposed to describe the traveling current wave, and is applied in solving the electromagnetic scattering from three-dimensional (3D) PEC objects with smooth surfaces. By hybridizing the phase-extracted basis function with higher-order hierarchical basis functions, a moving standing-wave (MSW) basis function is further introduced to describe both the traveling-wave and the standing-wave terms in the induced surface current. It is shown from several numerical examples that the moving standing-wave basis function has excellent performance for solving electromagnetic scattering from three-dimensional PEC objects with both smooth and non-smooth surfaces, as well as for three-dimensional PEC cavities. After that, the unique properties of the phase-extracted basis function are utilized in the “sparsification” of the MoM matrix, and in the fast calculation of wideband responses. With the aid of the phase-extracted basis function and the moving standing-wave basis functions, the total memory requirements and the computational time can be significantly reduced, while numerical solutions can be obtained with good accuracy. The advantages of the phase-extracted basis functions and the moving standing-wave basis functions in predicting electromagnetic scattering from electrically large complex objects are summarized before the conclusions are drawn.