Transient scattering by conductor bodies-A comparison of TLM and TDIE techniques

The radar signature calculations play an essential role in the design and functioning of today's radars in detecting the surface and air targets. Radar detection is essentially a transient electromagnetic scattering phenomenon and it can be carried out both in time-domain and frequency-domain. However, direct transient analysis, that is in time-domain provides an opportunity to observe and to interpret scattering behavior. We present in this paper a comparison of two popular time domain numerical techniques widely used for direct transient analysis, namely, the transmission line matrix (TLM) method and the time-domain integral equation (TDIE) method. Both the methods belong to the category of time domain techniques; however, their modeling philosophy is quite different. Whereas the TLM method is based on the implementation of the Huygens principle by modeling the space with a system of interconnected transmission-lines, the TDIE is based on well known method of moments. The comparison is made via standard canonical shaped conductor bodies, namely, a cube, and a sphere, mainly to address the factors affecting accuracy, efficiency, and the required computer resources.