Scattering analysis of a large body with deep cavities

A numerical scheme is presented for simulating electromagnetic scattering from a large and arbitrarily shaped body, coated with inhomogeneous composite materials, with large and deep cavities. This numerical scheme employs the higher order vector finite-element method (FEM) to discretize the fields inside the cavities and coatings and the higher order boundary integral (BI) method to terminate the FEM computational domain. A highly efficient special solver is designed to eliminate the unknowns inside the cavities, which yields a computed relation (CR) matrix over the cavity's aperture between the tangential electric and magnetic fields. This CR matrix is then combined with the finite element-boundary integral (FE-BI) matrix equation to form a complete linear system for the discrete fields everywhere in the computational domain. The resulting system is solved iteratively using a novel preconditioner derived by replacing the BI with a corresponding absorbing boundary condition (ABC).