Shape Uncertainty Quantification for Electromagnetic Wave Scattering via First-Order Sparse Boundary Element Approximation

Quantifying the effects on electromagnetic waves scattered by objects of uncertain shape is key for robust design, particularly in high-precision applications. Assuming small random perturbations departing from a nominal domain, the first-order sparse boundary (FOSB) element method has been proven to directly compute statistical moments with poly-logarithmic complexity for a prescribed accuracy, without resorting to computationally intense Monte Carlo (MC) simulations. However, implementing FOSB is not straightforward as the lack of compelling computational results for EM scattering attests. In this work, we present a first full 3-D implementation of FOSB for shape-related uncertainty quantification (UQ) in EM scattering. In doing so, we address several implementation issues such as ill-conditioning and large computational and memory requirements and present a comprehensive, state-of-the-art, easy-to-use, open-source computational framework to directly apply this technique when dealing with complex objects. Exhaustive numerical experiments confirm our claims and demonstrate the technique’s applicability and provide pathways for further improvement.