Accurate Modeling for Electromagnetic Interaction with Plasma-Surrounded Metallic Objects

Electromagnetic (EM) interaction with plasma-surrounded metallic objects will occur when the re-entry capsule of space craft re-entries the atmospheric layer and its accurate modeling and analysis are very desirable. The integral equation method is used to govern the problem and the volume-surface integral equations are needed to describe the involved EM characteristic since the objects include both the impenetrable conductor and penetrable conductive plasma. The VSIEs are usually solved by the method of moments (MoM), but it may not be feasible when considering the changeable shape of plasmoid cluster. To this end, a truly meshless method (TMM) is proposed to solve the VSIEs with such an object. The TMM employs a virtual cylinder to enclose the object and transforms the volume integral over the cylinder into a surface integral over its boundaries based on Green-Gauss theorem. This transformation is equivalent to switch the change of geometric shape into the change of material distribution in the volume. A numerical example is presented to illustrate the method and its good performance has been verified.