Investigation of electromagnetic wave propagation in the bicomplex 3D-FEM using a wavenumber Whitney Hodge operator

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to show the applicability of a discrete Hodge operator in the context of the De Rham cohomology to bicomplex-valued electromagnetic wave propagation problems. It was applied in the finite element method (FEM) to get a higher accuracy through conformal discretization. Therewith, merely the primal mesh is needed to discretize the full system of Maxwell equations.

Design/methodology/approach

At the beginning, the theoretical background is presented. The bicomplex number system is used as a geometrical algebra to describe three-dimensional electromagnetic problems. Because we treat rotational field problems, Whitney edge elements are chosen in the FEM to realize a conformal discretization. Next, numerical simulations regarding practical wave propagation problems are performed and compared with the common FEM approach using the Helmholtz equation.

Findings

Different field problems of three-dimensional electromagnetic wave propagation are treated to present the merits and shortcomings of the method, which calculates the electric and magnetic field at the same spatial location on a primal mesh. A significant improvement in accuracy is achieved, whereas fewer essential boundary conditions are necessary. Furthermore, no numerical dispersion is observed.

Originality/value

A novel Hodge operator, which acts on bicomplex-valued cotangential spaces, is constructed and discretized as an edge-based finite element matrix. The interpretation of the proposed geometrical algebra in the language of the De Rham cohomology leads to a more comprehensive viewpoint than the classical treatment in FEM. The presented paper may motivate researchers to interpret the form of number system as a degree of freedom when modeling physical effects. Several relationships between physical quantities might be inherently implemented in such an algebra.

Citation

Reum, T. and Toepfer, H. (2022), "Investigation of electromagnetic wave propagation in the bicomplex 3D-FEM using a wavenumber Whitney Hodge operator", COMPEL - The international journal for computation and mathematics in electrical and electronic engineering, Vol. 41 No. 3, pp. 996-1010. https://doi.org/10.1108/COMPEL-03-2021-0078