An introduction to the parabolic equation method for electromagnetic wave propagation in tunnels
ISSN: 0332-1649
Article publication date: 21 January 2022
Issue publication date: 26 August 2022
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief introduction of the finite difference based parabolic equation (PE) modeling to the advanced engineering students and academic researchers.
Design/methodology/approach
A three-dimensional parabolic equation (3DPE) model is developed from the ground up for modeling wave propagation in the tunnel via a rectangular waveguide structure. A discussion of vector wave equations from Maxwell’s equations followed by the paraxial approximations and finite difference implementation is presented for the beginners. The obtained simulation results are compared with the analytical solution.
Findings
It is shown that the alternating direction implicit finite difference method (FDM) is more efficient in terms of accuracy, computational time and memory than the explicit FDM. The reader interested in maximum details of individual contributions such as the latest achievements in PE modeling until 2021, basic PE derivation, PE formulation’s approximations, finite difference discretization and implementation of 3DPE, can learn from this paper.
Research limitations/implications
For the purpose of this paper, a simple 3DPE formulation is presented. For simplicity, a rectangular waveguide structure is discretized with the finite difference approach as a design problem. Future work could use the PE based FDM to study the possibility of utilization of meteorological techniques, including the effects of backward traveling waves as well as making comparisons with the experimental data.
Originality/value
The proposed work is directly applicable to typical problems in the field of tunnel propagation modeling for both national commercial and military applications.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to Center of Electromagnetic Simulation, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China for their resources.
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
Citation
Rasool, H.F., Qureshi, M.A., Aziz, A., Akhtar, Z.U.A. and Khan, U.A. (2022), "An introduction to the parabolic equation method for electromagnetic wave propagation in tunnels", COMPEL - The international journal for computation and mathematics in electrical and electronic engineering, Vol. 41 No. 5, pp. 1313-1331. https://doi.org/10.1108/COMPEL-07-2021-0245
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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