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Article
Publication date: 4 September 2017

Christos Salis, Nikolaos Kantartzis and Theodoros Zygiridis

Random media uncertainties exhibit a significant impact on the properties of electromagnetic fields that usually deterministic models tend to neglect. As a result, these models…

158

Abstract

Purpose

Random media uncertainties exhibit a significant impact on the properties of electromagnetic fields that usually deterministic models tend to neglect. As a result, these models fail to quantify the variation in the calculated electromagnetic fields, leading to inaccurate outcomes. This paper aims to introduce an unconditionally stable finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method for assessing two-dimensional random media uncertainties in one simulation.

Design/methodology/approach

The proposed technique is an extension of the stochastic FDTD (S-FDTD) scheme, which approximates the variance of a given field component using the Delta method. Specifically in this paper, the Delta method is applied to the locally one-dimensional (LOD) FDTD scheme (hence named S-LOD-FDTD), to achieve unconditional stability. The validity of this algorithm is tested by solving two-dimensional random media problems and comparing the results with other methods, such as the Monte-Carlo (MC) and the S-FDTD techniques.

Findings

This paper provides numerical results that prove the unconditional stability of the S-LOD-FDTD technique. Also, the comparison with the MC and the S-FDTD methods shows that reliable outcomes can be extracted even with larger time steps, thus making this technique more efficient than the other two aforementioned schemes.

Research limitations/implications

The S-LOD-FDTD method requires the proper quantification of various correlation coefficients between the calculated fields and the electrical parameters, to achieve reliable results. This cannot be known beforehand and the only known way to calculate them is to run a fraction of MC simulations.

Originality/value

This paper introduces a new unconditional stable technique for measuring material uncertainties in one realization.

Details

COMPEL - The international journal for computation and mathematics in electrical and electronic engineering, vol. 36 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0332-1649

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 30 June 2020

Lucas Lobo Latorre Fortes and Sandro Trindade Mordente Gonçalves

This paper aims to explore the limitations of the conformal finite difference time-domain method (C-FDTD or Dey–Mittra) when modeling perfect electric conducting (PEC) and…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to explore the limitations of the conformal finite difference time-domain method (C-FDTD or Dey–Mittra) when modeling perfect electric conducting (PEC) and lossless dielectric curved surfaces in coarse meshes. The C-FDTD is a widely known approach to reduce error of curved surfaces in the FDTD method. However, its performance limitations are not broadly described in the literature, which are explored as a novelty in this paper.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper explores the C-FDTD method applied on field scattering simulations of two curved surfaces, a dielectric and a PEC sphere, through the frequency range from 0.8 to 10 GHz. For each sphere, the mesh was progressively impoverished to evaluate the accuracy drop and performance limitations of the C-FDTD with the mesh impoverishment, along with the wideband frequency range described.

Findings

This paper shows and quantifies the C-FDTD method’s accuracy drops as the mesh is impoverished, reducing C-FDTD’s performance. It is also shown how the performance drops differently according to the frequency of interest.

Practical implications

With this study, coarse meshes, with smaller execution time and reduced memory usage, can be further explored reliably accounting the desired accuracy, enabling a better trade-off between accuracy and computational effort.

Originality/value

This paper quantifies the limitations of the C-FDTD in coarse meshes in a wideband manner, which brings a broader and newer insight upon C-FDTD’s limitations in coarse meshes or relatively small objects in electromagnetic simulation.

Details

COMPEL - The international journal for computation and mathematics in electrical and electronic engineering , vol. 39 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0332-1649

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 July 2017

Omar Ramadan

The purpose of this paper is to derive a unified formulation for incorporating different dispersive models into the explicit and implicit finite difference time domain (FDTD…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to derive a unified formulation for incorporating different dispersive models into the explicit and implicit finite difference time domain (FDTD) simulations.

Design/methodology/approach

In this paper, dispersive integro-differential equation (IDE) FDTD formulation is presented. The resultant IDE is written in the discrete time domain by applying the trapezoidal recursive convolution and central finite differences schemes. In addition, unconditionally stable implicit split-step (SS) FDTD implementation is also discussed.

Findings

It is found that the time step stability limit of the explicit IDE-FDTD formulation maintains the conventional Courant–Friedrichs–Lewy (CFL) constraint but with additional stability limits related to the dispersive model parameters. In addition, the CFL stability limit can be removed by incorporating the implicit SS scheme into the IDE-FDTD formulation, but this is traded for degradation in the accuracy of the formulation.

Research limitations/implications

The stability of the explicit FDTD scheme is bounded not only by the CFL limit but also by additional condition related to the dispersive material parameters. In addition, it is observed that implicit JE-IDE FDTD implementation decreases as the time step exceeds the CFL limit.

Practical implications

Based on the presented formulation, a single dispersive FDTD code can be written for implementing different dispersive models such as Debye, Drude, Lorentz, critical point and the quadratic complex rational function.

Originality/value

The proposed formulation not only unifies the FDTD implementation of the frequently used dispersive models with the minimal storage requirements but also can be incorporated with the implicit SS scheme to remove the CFL time step stability constraint.

Details

COMPEL - The international journal for computation and mathematics in electrical and electronic engineering, vol. 36 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0332-1649

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 27 September 2019

Omar Ramadan

The purpose of this paper is to present efficient and stable generalized auxiliary differential equation finite difference time domain (G-ADE-FDTD) implementation of graphene…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present efficient and stable generalized auxiliary differential equation finite difference time domain (G-ADE-FDTD) implementation of graphene dispersion.

Design/methodology/approach

A generalized dispersive model is used for describing the graphene’s intraband and interband conductivities in the terahertz and infrared frequencies. In addition, the von Neumann method combined with the Routh-Hurwitz criterion are used for studying the stability of the given implementation.

Findings

The presented G-ADE-FDTD implementation allows modeling graphene’s dispersion using the minimal number of additional auxiliary variables, which will reduce both the CPU time and memory storage requirements. In addition, the stability of the implementation retains the standard non-dispersive Courant–Friedrichs–Lewy (CFL) constraint.

Practical implications

The given implementation is conveniently applicable for most commonly used dispersive models, such as Debye, Lorentz, complex-conjugate pole residue, etc.

Originality/value

The presented G-ADE-FDTD implementation not only unifies the implementation of both graphene’s intraband and interband conductivities, with the minimal computational requirements but also retains the standard non-dispersive CFL time step stability constraint.

Details

COMPEL - The international journal for computation and mathematics in electrical and electronic engineering , vol. 38 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0332-1649

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 7 September 2015

Georgios Pyrialakos, Athanasios Papadimopoulos, Theodoros Zygiridis, Nikolaos Kantartzis and Theodoros Tsiboukis

Stochastic uncertainties in material parameters have a significant impact on the analysis of real-world electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) problems. Conventional approaches via…

Abstract

Purpose

Stochastic uncertainties in material parameters have a significant impact on the analysis of real-world electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) problems. Conventional approaches via the Monte-Carlo scheme attempt to provide viable solutions, yet at the expense of prohibitively elongated simulations and system overhead, due to the large amount of statistical implementations. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a 3-D stochastic finite-difference time-domain (S-FDTD) technique for the accurate modelling of generalised EMC applications with highly random media properties, while concurrently offering fast and economical single-run realisations.

Design/methodology/approach

The proposed method establishes the concept of covariant/contravariant metrics for robust tessellations of arbitrarily curved structures and derives the mean value and standard deviation of the generated fields in a single-run. Also, the critical case of geometrical and physical uncertainties is handled via an optimal parameterisation, which locally reforms the curvilinear grid. In order to pursue extra speed efficiency, code implementation is conducted through contemporary graphics processor units and parallel programming.

Findings

The curvilinear S-FDTD algorithm is proven very precise and stable, compared to existing multiple-realisation approaches, in the analysis of statistically-varying problems. Moreover, its generalised formulation allows the effective treatment of realistic structures with arbitrarily curved geometries, unlike staircase schemes. Finally, the GPU-based enhancements accomplish notably accelerated simulations that may exceed the level of 120 times. Conclusively, the featured technique can successfully attain highly accurate results with very limited system requirements.

Originality/value

Development of a generalised curvilinear S-FDTD methodology, based on a covariant/contravariant algorithm. Incorporation of the important geometric/physical uncertainties through a locally adaptive curved mesh. Speed advancement via modern GPU and CUDA programming which leads to reliable estimations, even for abrupt statistical media parameter fluctuations.

Details

COMPEL: The International Journal for Computation and Mathematics in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, vol. 34 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0332-1649

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 7 September 2015

Theodoros Zygiridis, Georgios Pyrialakos, Nikolaos Kantartzis and Theodoros Tsiboukis

The locally one-dimensional (LOD) finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method features unconditional stability, yet its low accuracy in time can potentially become detrimental…

Abstract

Purpose

The locally one-dimensional (LOD) finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method features unconditional stability, yet its low accuracy in time can potentially become detrimental. Regarding the improvement of the method’s reliability, existing solutions introduce high-order spatial operators, which nevertheless cannot deal with the augmented temporal errors. The purpose of the paper is to describe a systematic procedure that enables the efficient implementation of extended spatial stencils in the context of the LOD-FDTD scheme, capable of reducing the combined space-time flaws without additional computational cost.

Design/methodology/approach

To accomplish the goal, the authors introduce spatial derivative approximations in parametric form, and then construct error formulae from the update equations, once they are represented as a one-stage process. The unknown operators are determined with the aid of two error-minimization procedures, which equally suppress errors both in space and time. Furthermore, accelerated implementation of the scheme is accomplished via parallelization on a graphics-processing-unit (GPU), which greatly shortens the duration of implicit updates.

Findings

It is shown that the performance of the LOD-FDTD method can be improved significantly, if it is properly modified according to accuracy-preserving principles. In addition, the numerical results verify that a GPU implementation of the implicit solver can result in up to 100× acceleration. Overall, the formulation developed herein describes a fast, unconditionally stable technique that remains reliable, even at coarse temporal resolutions.

Originality/value

Dispersion-relation-preserving optimization is applied to an unconditionally stable FDTD technique. In addition, parallel cyclic reduction is adapted to hepta-diagonal systems, and it is proven that GPU parallelization can offer non-trivial benefits to implicit FDTD approaches as well.

Details

COMPEL: The International Journal for Computation and Mathematics in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, vol. 34 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0332-1649

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 December 2002

Alexandre Richardson, Laurent Cirio, Laurent Martoglio and Odile Picon

A numerical and experimental analysis of an original inverted microstrip transmission line on standard Silicon substrate for telecommunication applications is proposed…

Abstract

A numerical and experimental analysis of an original inverted microstrip transmission line on standard Silicon substrate for telecommunication applications is proposed. Simulations have been made using a time domain method such as Finite‐Difference‐Time‐Domain method (FDTD) to obtain results on a large frequency band. However, the main difficulty of the FDTD is due to the absorbing boundary conditions (ABC) which must be perfectly matched to the inhomogeneous media with losses. Indeed, the fine dimensions prescribed by the studied circuit lead to a long computational time. To reduce the FDTD grid but also to simulate inhomogeneous medium with losses, an efficient and broadband ABC has to be implemented because classical ones are not suitable to simulate a lossy substrate. For this reason, a specific uniaxial perfectly matched layers (UPML) is proposed. We compare numerical results obtained with FDTD, HP Momentum and experimental ones to show the validation of the method applied to lossy media.

Details

COMPEL - The international journal for computation and mathematics in electrical and electronic engineering, vol. 21 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0332-1649

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 21 January 2022

Theodoros Zygiridis and Nikolaos Kantartzis

The computational accuracy and performance of finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) methods are affected by the implementation of approximating derivative formulae in diverse ways…

Abstract

Purpose

The computational accuracy and performance of finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) methods are affected by the implementation of approximating derivative formulae in diverse ways. This study aims to focus on FDTD models featuring material dispersion with negligible losses and investigates two specific aspects that, until today, are usually examined in the context of non-dispersive media only. These aspects pertain to certain abnormal characteristics of coarsely resolved electromagnetic waves and the selection of the proper time-step size, in the case of a high-order discretization scheme.

Design/methodology/approach

Considering a Lorentz medium with negligible losses, the propagation characteristics of coarsely resolved waves is examined first, by investigating thoroughly the numerical dispersion relation of a typical discretization scheme. The second part of the study is related to the unbalanced space-time errors in FDTD schemes with dissimilar space-time approximation orders. The authors propose a remedy via the suitable choice of the time-step size, based on the single-frequency minimization of an error expression extracted, again, from the scheme’s numerical dispersion formula.

Findings

Unlike wave propagation in free space, there exist two parts of the frequency spectrum where waves in a Lorentz medium experience non-physical attenuation and display non-changing propagation constants, due to coarse discretization. The authors also show that an optimum time-step size can be determined, in the case of the (2,4) FDTD scheme, which minimizes the selected error formula at a specific frequency point, promoting more efficient implementations.

Originality/value

Unique characteristics displayed by discretized waves, which have been known for non-dispersive media, are examined and verified for the first time in the case of dispersive materials, thus completing the comprehension of the space-time discretization impact on simulated quantities. In addition, the closed-form formula of the optimum time-step enables the efficient implementation of the (2,4) FDTD method, minimizing the detrimental influence of the low-order temporal integration.

Details

COMPEL - The international journal for computation and mathematics in electrical and electronic engineering , vol. 41 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0332-1649

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 May 2010

A. Bouquet, C. Dedeban and S. Piperno

The use of the prominent finite difference time‐domain (FDTD) method for the time‐domain solution of electromagnetic wave propagation past devices with small geometrical details…

Abstract

Purpose

The use of the prominent finite difference time‐domain (FDTD) method for the time‐domain solution of electromagnetic wave propagation past devices with small geometrical details can require very fine grids and can lead to unmanageable computational time and storage. The purpose of this paper is to extend the analysis of a discontinuous Galerkin time‐domain (DGTD) method (able to handle possibly non‐conforming locally refined grids, based on portions of Cartesian grids) and investigate the use of perfectly matched layer regions and the coupling with a fictitious domain approach. The use of a DGTD method with a locally refined, non‐conforming mesh can help focusing on these small details. In this paper, the adaptation to the DGTD method of the fictitious domain approach initially developed for the FDTD is considered, in order to avoid the use of a volume mesh fitting the geometry near the details.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on a DGTD method, a fictitious domain approach is developed to deal with complex and small geometrical details.

Findings

The fictitious domain approach is a very interesting complement to the FDTD method, since it makes it possible to handle complex geometries. However, the fictitious domain approach requires small volume elements, thus making the use of the FDTD on wide, regular, fine grids often unmanageable. The DGTD method has the ability to handle easily locally refined grids and the paper shows it can be coupled to a fictitious domain approach.

Research limitations/implications

Although the stability and dispersion analysis of the DGTD method is complete, the theoretical analysis of the fictitious domain approach in the DGTD context is not. It is a subject of further investigation (which could provide important insights for potential improvements).

Originality/value

This is believed to be the first time a DGTD method is coupled with a fictitious domain approach.

Details

COMPEL - The international journal for computation and mathematics in electrical and electronic engineering, vol. 29 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0332-1649

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 10 July 2009

Karl Hollaus, Oszkár Bíró, Gernot Matzenauer, Christian Stockreiter, Bernhard Weiß, Peter Caldera and Gerhard Paoli

The purpose of this paper is to study the extraction of scattering parameters (SPs) from simple structures on a printed circuit board (PCB) by the finite difference time domain…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to study the extraction of scattering parameters (SPs) from simple structures on a printed circuit board (PCB) by the finite difference time domain (FDTD) method with the aid of a surface impedance boundary condition (SIBC).

Design/methodology/approach

The incorporation of SIBC into the FDTD method is described for the general case. The excitation of a field problem by a field pattern and the transition from the field solution to a circuit representation by SPs is discussed.

Findings

SPs obtained by FDTD with SIBC are validated with semi‐analytic solutions and compared with results obtained by different numerical methods. Results of a microstrip with a discontinuity considering losses are presented demonstrating the capability of the present method.

Originality/value

The comparison of numerical results obtained by different methods demonstrates the capability of the present method to extract SPs from PCBs very efficiently.

Details

COMPEL - The international journal for computation and mathematics in electrical and electronic engineering, vol. 28 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0332-1649

Keywords

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