Analysis of airframe-mounted antennas using parallel and hybridized finite-element time-domain methods

The application of numerical methods to electrically large, three-dimensional geometries typically requires the use of parallel-processing techniques. The distributed parallelization of the finite-element time-domain-finite-difference time-domain (FETD-FDTD) hybrid is described. An application is provided for antenna radiation on a realistic airframe. The parallelization procedure requires two domain decompositions: one for the structured, finite-difference grid, and the other for the unstructured, finite-element grid. The two grids communicate across the interface shown. The FETD method and the interface to FDTD are described, and the parallelization implementation is presented together with applications.