IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION,VOL.42, NO.
6, JUNE 1994
- - : 2a/T = 0.9
Incident Angle, 0 (Degrees)
Fig. 4. Reflected and transmitted powers versus the incident angle for
T = 0.58X, 2alT = 1,0.9, g = 0.05/X, zo = 0 , N = 51.
(ii) When I # r,
where
REFERENCES
S. W. Lee, Radiation from an infinite aperiodic array of parallel-
plate waveguides, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., vol. AP-15, pp.
598406, Sept. 1967.
[21 C. P. Wu, Analysis of finite parallel-plate waveguide arrays, IEEE
Trans. Antennas Propagat., vol. AP-18,pp. 328-334, May 1970.
r31 G. F. Vanblaricum and R.Mittra, A modified residuetalculus technique
for solving a class of boundary value problems-part II: Waveguide
phased arrays, modulated surfaces, and diffraction gratings, IEEE
Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., vol. MlT-17, pp. 310-319, June 1969.
[41 T. J. Park and H. J. Eom, Scattering and receptionby a flanged parallel-
plate waveguide: TE-mode analysis, IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory
Tech., vol. 41, pp. 1458-1460, Aug. 1993.
[51 T. J. Park, H. J. Eom, and K. Yoshitomi, Analysis of TM scattering
from finite grooves in a conducting plane, .I . Soc. Am-A, vol. 10,
Opr.
no. 5, pp. 905-911, May 1993.
0018-926X/94$04.00 @ 1994 IEEE
865
Electromagnetic Scattering from Objects Composed of
Multiple Homogeneous Regions Using a
Region-by-Region Solution
P. M. Goggans, A. A. Kishk, and A. W. Glisson
Abstmct-This paper presents an efiicient procedure to calculate the
electromagnetic field scattered by an inhomogeneous object consisting
+
of N 1 linear isotropic homogeneous regions. The procedure is based
on surface integral equation (SIE) formulations and the method of
moments. The method of moments is used to reduce the integral equations
for each homogeneous dielectric region into individual matrices. These
matrices are each solved for the equivalent electric current in terms of
the equivalent magnetic current. A simple algebraic procedure is used
to combine these solutions and to solve for the magnetic current on
the outer dielectric surfaces of the scatterer. With the magnetic current
determined, the electric current on the outer surface of the scatterer is
calculated. Because the matrix corresponding to each dielectric region
is solved separately, we call this procedure the region-by-region method.
The procedure is simple and efficient. It requires less computer storage
and less execution time than the conventional MM approach, in which
all the unknown currents are solved for simultaneously. To illustrate the
use of the procedure, the bwtatic and monostatic radar cross sections
(RCS) of several objects are computed. The computed results are verified
by comparison with results obtained numerically using the conventional
numerical procedure as well as via the series solution for circular
cylindrical structures. The possibility of nonunique solutions has also
been investigated.
I. INTRODUCTION
The study of electromagnetic interaction with composite materials
is of interest in diverse engineering areas. Many of these areas require
analysis methods that can treat very complex composite objects. With
the relative increase in the complexity of the objects of interest,
increasingly sophisticated numerical solutions become necessary to
study the electromagnetic characteristics of composite objects. Var-
ious numerical methods can be used to solve the electromagnetic
interaction problem [I]-[6]; however, each method has its own
limitations.
The method of moments (MM) has proven to be an efficient method
for solution of surface integral equations (SIE). The SIE formulation
is most suitable for objects made of linear isotropic homogeneous
materials. For inhomogeneous objects, other formulations-such as
the volume integral equation (VIE) or partial differential equation
(PDE) formulations-may be used. However, if the inhomogeneity
of the material is simple, the use of an SIE may be preferred, because
the matrix size for such special cases will generally be smaller using
an S E than the matrices that can be obtained from other formulations.
In this paper, the SIE formulation based on the equivalence
principle is used to study the problem of electromagnetic scattering
from objects made of multiple homogeneous regions. Rather than
solving the single large matrix obtained by the conventional method
of moments, the present formulation involves the solution of several
smaller matrices. Because each of the smaller matrices is associated
with a single region, this procedure is referred to as the region-by-
region method.
The region-by-region method is a domain decomposition scheme
based on equivalent surface currents and is intended for treating ob-
Manuscript received March 12, 1993; revised November 23, 1993.
The authors are with the Department of Electrical Engineering, University
of Mississippi, University, MS 38677 USA.
IEEE Log Number 9402827.
866 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 42, NO. 6, JUNE 1994
SO
,,
Fig. 1. Geometry of an object consisting of N + 1 regions.
jects composed of multiple homogeneous regions. A similar method,
also based on surface equivalence, is presented in [7] for determining
the field scattered by a cavity in an infinite ground plane.
A computer program employing the region-by-region method to
compute the bistatic or monostatic radar cross sections (RCS) has
been written and tested, and several examples are presented to
show the accuracy of this program in calculating the RCS of two-
dimensional (2-D) objects.
U. DEVELOPMENT OF THE S E
In this section, the equivalence principle is used to derive an
SIE formulation for scatterers with N + 1 homogeneous regions.
The geometry and notations for such a scatterer are given in Fig.
+
1. The whole space is divided into N 2 homogeneous regions,
which may be either dielectric regions with permittivities E, and
permeabilities p, , or closed conductor regions. The dielectric regions
are numbered i = 0,1,2, e ,N . Lossy materials are considered by
allowing E,, p,, i = 1 , 2 , . . . ,N to be complex. The region N 1 +
is filled with perfect electric conductor (PEC). Each region V , is
surrounded by a closed surface S, and associated with an inward
directed normal unit vector ii;. The surface interface between regions
V , and V, is denoted as S,, , i # j . Thus, S, comprises the set of all
interface surfaces S,,, where j represents all region numbers adjacent
to region V,. Note that S,, is the same surface as SlZ; however, the
normal unit vectors 6; and i i j are in opposite directions to each
other on the two surfaces. Fig. 1 illustrates the surface notation and
the normal directions for the body. In this paper, the time variation
is implied and suppressed throughout.
The total fields in each homogeneous dielectric region are denoted
by E, and H,, i = 0 , 1 , 2 , . ..,N for the electric and magnetic
fields, respectively. In the free-space region VO,the total fields
(E0,Ho) are the summation of the incident and scattered fields
+ +
(Elnc E S C , a l n cElsc). From Maxwell's equations and the
equivalence principle, the fields in each region can be expressed in
terms of unknown equivalent electric and magnetic surface currents
on the periphery of the region. According to the surface equivalence
principle, the original problem can be broken into a number of
auxiliary problems equal to the number of the homogeneous dielectric
+
regions (N 1) in the original problem. The PEC region need not
be considered because the fields in this region are known to be
zero. Thus multiple closed PEC regions maybe lumped into a single
region numbered N + 1. To obtain the ith auxiliary problem, the
boundaries of region V , are replaced by equivalent surface currents
radiating in a homogeneous medium with the constitutive parameters
of region V,. Equivalent electric currents are placed on conductor
boundaries, and equivalent electric and magnetic currents are placed
on dielectric boundaries. This procedure is illustrated in Fig. 2 for
region V,. The electric and magnetic currents appearing on opposite
sides of a dielectric interface in different auxiliary problems are equal
in magnitude and opposite in direction because of the continuity
of the tangential components of the electric and magnetic fields on
these boundaries in the original problem. In each of the auxiliary
problems, the fields produced by the equivalent currents within the
region's boundaries are the same as those in the original problem,
while the fields outside the boundaries are zero. Thus, the boundary
conditions can be written for each interior auxiliary problem (regions
i = 1 , 2 , . ,N) as follows:
+ +
E,t(Jz) E , t ( J t ) E , t ( M , ) = 0 just outside S,, (1)
n, x + +
[ H , ( J f ) H , ( J f ) H , ( M , ) ]= 0 just outside S, (2)
where J;"is the equivalent electric current on the conductor bound-
aries of the region V , and E;* = -ii x ii x E,. The current J," is
zero if there are no conductor boundaries. The currents JP and M.
are the electric and magnetic currents on the dielectric boundaries
of region V,. The operators E.(C) and H.(C)are the electric and
magnetic fields produced by the current C in an unbounded region
of permittivity E, and permeability p,.
In this paper, the excitation is considered to be due to a plane wave
in the free-space region VO. In the equivalent problem for the exterior
region, the entire medium is filled with EO and po. The equivalent
currents of the exterior problem produce the scattered fields E""
and Hac in VOand the negative of the incident fields in the region
outside VO. Note that the region outside VOis the region occupied by
the scatterer. The boundary conditions for the equivalent problem of
the exterior region can be written as
-E:F(JG) - EiF(J:) - EiZ(M0) = E;,,
just outside SO,(3)
-no x [HF(JG)- H:'(J:) - Hi'(Mo)] = n o x H'""
just outside SO. (4)
The electric and magnetic surface currents along the boundaries are
J, = n, x E,
M;= -n, x E; on S,. (5)
Equations (1) through (5) are general and valid for 2-D and 3-D
problems. Without loss of generality, we consider the 2-D transverse
magnetic (TM) case for simplicity in presenting the region-by-region
method. In the TM case, the equivalent electric currents are all axially
directed and the equivalent magnetic currents are circumferentially
directed. Using this fact, the equivalent currents in (5) can be written
as
J, = J,,E on S,
M. = M,tk on S, (6)
where E is the unit vector in the z direction and t, is the unit surface
tangent defined by
2, = 2 x n,. (7)
Since in the TM case the electric fields and electric currents have
only a z-component, and the magnetic fields and magnetic currents
have only a t-component, (1) through (4) can be reduced to scalar
integral equations and written as
+ +
E z Z ( J f z ) E z z ( J $ ) E Z z ( M 2 t=) 0 just outside S,, (8)
+ +
HZt(J:,) H t t ( J t z ) H , t ( M , t )= 0 just outside S,, (9)
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 42, NO. 6, JUNE 1994
Fig. 2. Interior equivalent situation for region V,.
-EoZ(J8,) - Eoz(Jod,) - EoZ(Mot)= E
': just outside Si,
(10)
-Hot(J8,) - Hot(Jodz)- Hot(Mot) = Hi"" just outside Si.
(11)
Each of (8) through (1 1) applies on each of the region boundaries
S,. Therefore, two electric field equations will be written for each
of the individual dielectric boundary segments Sz, (since equations
are written for S,, and S,,, i.e., one equation for region i and one
equation for region j ) . One electric field equation will be written
for each conducting boundary S z , ~ + The
l . magnetic field equations
will have the same number. Similarly, the equivalent currents can
be associated with and referred to by their corresponding boundaries
(e.g., Jp on surface Sz,). Recognizing that J , = - J , and M , =
- M , on S,, leads to a number of equations that is twice the number
of unknowns. To solve these equations the number of equations must
be reduced to be equal to the number of unknowns. Several possible
ways of reducing the number of equations can be used, as in [8].
These conventional procedures lead to a system of equations that is
generally solved simultaneously to obtain all the unknown currents
at once. In scattering problems, however, only the exterior equivalent
currents (J&, Jgz, Mot) are needed. Therefore, we propose here an
altemative method that leads directly to the solution for the exterior
currents only. In fact, the procedure can be rearranged so that the
equivalent currents for any particular region can be obtained directly
using the proposed procedure.
In the TE case the electric fields and equivalent electric currents
J' are all circumferentially directed, and the magnetic fields and
equivalent magnetic currents M *are axially directed. Following the
above steps, the formulation for the TE case can be readily derived,
but it is omitted here for the sake of brevity.
111. THE NUMERICAL SOLUTION
To solve the surface integral equations, the contours of the scatter-
ing body are divided into a number of linear zones. The end points
of the zones lie on the actual contours of the body. The length of
the zones is taken to be less than one-tenth of a wavelength. The
currents are expanded in pulse basis functions multiplied by unknown
coefficients. Then the point matching technique is employed to reduce
the integral equations to a system of linear equations following the
procedure given in [9]. With this step completed, (8) will be in the
following matrix form for each interior dielectric region:
and (IO) for the exterior will be in the form
867
Similarly, (9) and (1 l), respectively, will be in the following matrix
forms:
In (12) through (15), Zetand Zh' denote matrix elements obtained
from the operators E,,(J,) and H t t ( J , ) , respectively. The matrix
elements Ye' and Y h zare obtained from the operators E,,(Mt) and
H , t ( M t ) , respectively. The first subscript of the matrix elements
indicates field surface type, and the second subscript denotes the
source surface type. The quantities Izd and I,, are the unknown
expansion coefficients of the electric currents on the dielectric and
conductor boundaries, respectively, and IC, are the magnetic current
coefficients. The right side columns are the excitation vectors, V
for electric fields and I for magnetic fields. Equations (12) and (13)
represent an E-field formulation, and (14) and (15) represent an H -
field formulation. If (12) is combined with (14) and (13) is combined
with (15), one obtains a C-field formulation.
Regardless of the formulation, the solution procedure is the same.
The 2 matrix system is square, and the Y matrix system is rectangular
(if conductor boundaries are present in the region). Therefore, from
the above set of equations, one can obtain the electric currents for
any region in terms of the magnetic currents of the same region, as
follows:
where
The superscripts e and h have been dropped in (16) through (20)
for generality. Thus, the matrices Z and Y can be used to represent
the E-field, H-field, or C-field formulation. It is very important to
recognize that the electric currents on the dielectric boundaries are
represented twice in the overall system of equations built from (16)
and (17) (e.g., I z d = - I , d on sz, the boundary shared by regions
and V,). Therefore, the electric currents on the dielectric surfaces can
be eliminated from (16) and (17) by adding the equations on a surface-
by- surface basis (surface s,, -by-S,, basis, not s,-by-S, basis). By
rearranging the resulting system of equations formed including all the
surfaces, one can obtain the following system of equations:
rD c o o1 w0i mi
where 0 and I are the null and unit matrices, respectively. The
matrices A and D are square matrices, and the matrices B and
C are rectangular matrices. Note that all the electric currents from
dielectric interfaces have been eliminated, but that conductor surface
~

868 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 42, NO. 6, JUNE 1994

currents remain. The magnetic currents on the dielectric boundaries

are also represented twice in (16) and (17). Because they appear in
the right-hand side of the equations, they do not cancel out when the
equations are added on a surface-by-surface basis, but the fact that
K,d = -K3d on s,, has been used to reduce the number of magnetic
current expansion coefficients by half. The vector K , contains the
consolidated magnetic current expansion coefficients. The magnetic
current coefficients can be obtained by selecting the upper two rows
of the matrix system of (21).
D C
[B A ] [z]=-E]
The matrix system in (22) may be solved for all the magnetic currents Fig. 3. Circular cylindrical scatterer composed of four wedges with permit-
on all of the dielectric boundaries. With all of the magnetic currents tivities 1 &, 3, and 4. The radius of the cylinder is one wavelength.
so determined, the electric currents in the exterior region can be
calculated using (17). However, this procedure requires the solution
of (22), which still involves a relatively large matrix. In some cases, it 12 t
may be more efficient if (22) is partitioned and solved in the following
manner. If (22) is partitioned as follows,
8
lo h -Series
.___---

0
Present
SiUltaneOUS

then (24) can be solved for in terms of KO:

[K;]= -[A]-' [ B ] [KO]
[ K ; ]= [F]0 [KO]. (25)
Substituting (25) in (23) yields an expression for KO:

By substituting KO into (17), the electric currents on the exterior

region can be calculated. With the exterior region electric and
magnetic currents determined from (17) and (26), the scattered fields,
and hence the RCS, can be calculated using the usual expressions
[9]. If required, the electric and magnetic currents on the surfaces of
the other regions can easily be calculated using backward recurrence
relations.
IV. RESULTS
The region-by-region method described by (16)-(26) has been
implemented by modifying the 2-D MM program of [9] using the pro-
gram organization described in [lo]. The new program can determine
the RCS of multiregion scatterers using both the conventional MM
(where all the currents are determined simultaneously) and the region-
by-region method. Results presented in this section demonstrate the
validity and utility of the region-by-region method.
Fig. 3 illustrates a circular cylindrical scatterer composed of four
wedges with a TM wave incident from = 90". One method of
testing the validity of the numerical solution is to determine the
bistatic RCS of the divided cylinder treating the four wedges as
separate regions but using the same permittivity for each of the
regions. In this way the numerical solution can be compared with
the series solution for a circular dielectric cylinder. Fig. 4 gives the
results of this test. In Fig. 4 each region has a relative permittivity
of 4, and RCS results are plotted for the conventional MM, for the
present method, and for the series solution. The conventional MM
and the present method are in near exact agreement, and both are
in good agreement with the series solution. The difference between
the series solution and the two numerical solutions can be made
arbitrarily small by reducing the segmentation size (here ten zones per
Fig. 4. Bistatic RCS of the divided cylinder verses angle for a TM polarized
incident wave. For this figure: = 4, E,Z = 4, ~ , 3= 4, and ~ , 4= 4. The
CFIE formulation is used for both the numerical solutions.
wavelength are used). Fig. 5 gives the RCS of the divided cylinder
for the case where each of the wedges has a different permittivity.
Again, the conventional MM and the present method are in near exact
agreement. The present method required 80 seconds of CPU time on
an IBM mainframe to generate the results presented in Fig. 5. The
conventional MM required 180 seconds to generate the same results.
In Figs. 4 and 5, the C-field formulation was used for both the
conventional MM and the region-by-region method. The body of
Fig. 6 was used to examine the performance of the region-by-region
method with different integral equation formulations. Fig. 6 illustrates
a scatterer composed of two eccentric circular cylindrical layers. This
body was chosen for study because an exact mode-matching solution
exists for this geometry [ll]. Figs. 7 and 8 plot the monostatic RCS
of the eccentric cylinders for the TM and TE polarization cases,
respectively. In both figures, results are given for the region-by-
region method using the E-field, H-field, and C-field formulations.
Results are also given for the mode-matching solution. In the TM
polarization case the C-field and E-field formulations are in good
agreement with the exact solution but the H-field formulation shows
significant error. In the TE polarization case the C-field and H-field
formulations are in good agreement with the exact solution, but the
E-field formulation shows significant error. These results are usually
indicative of an internal resonance problem with the E-field and H -
EEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 42, NO. 6, JUNE 1994 869

15 1 I

5
/I 5

0
0
-5
dh.
(a)
-10
-5
__ Exact
-IS
A H-field
-20 0 C-field
-10

-25
A

-30 -15
0 60 120 180 240 300 360 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180
(degrees) $ (degrees)

Fig. 5. Bistatic RCS of the divided cylinder verses angle for a TM polarized Fig. 7. Monostatic RCS of eccentric cylinders versus angle for a TM
incident wave. For this figure: e r l = 4, E,Z = 2, er3 = 6, and er4 = 8. The polarized incident wave.
CFE formulation is used for both the numerical solutions.

t' 0

-5

-10

-15 '~"""""""""""""""""""
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180
Fig. 6. Scatterer composed of two eccentric circular cylindrical layers. For
this scatterer: L,Q = 2, k,b = 4, k,e = 1.256, ,.I = 2, era = 4. $ (degrees)

Fig. 8. Monostatic RCS of eccentric cylinders versus angle for a TE

field formulations. As with the conventional MM, it seems that use
of the C-field formulation in the region-by-region method overcomes
the internal resonance problem.
In the conventional MM, the internal resonance problem results
from a false solution to one or more of the body's material regions.
In the conventional M M it can be proven that the internal resonance
problem is completely eliminated by use of the C-field formulation
[12]. Life is more complicated with the region-by-region method.
The matrix whose inverse appears on the right-hand side of (18) is
the same impedance matrix that would be obtained for the interior
problem of a PEC surrounding region i. Similarly, the matrix whose
inverse appears on the right-hand side of (19) is the same impedance
matrix that would be obtained for the interior problem of a PEC
surrounding region 0. These impedance matrices describe closed
conducting cavities, so the matrices are truly singular at the resonance
frequencies of the cavities. This is true regardless of the integral
equation formulation used (this property is used in [13] to determine
the cutoff wave numbers of waveguides). This fact suggests that the
region-by-region method will fail at the discrete set of frequencies
polarized incident wave.
corresponding to the cavity resonances of the body's dielectric
regions. If the current expansion in the MM were complete, then one
of the matrix inversions would fail and a region-by-region solution
would not be possible. This situation is theoretically acceptable
because it is very unlikely that the exact resonance frequency would
be used and, further, if an exact resonance frequency were used
the method gives a clear sign that is has failed (a singular matrix).
Because of the incomplete expansion of the currents in the MM, this
situation does not exist in practice. Due to the incomplete expansion
of the current, the inverses in (18) and (19) always exist numerically
[14]. The matrices do, however, become ill conditioned in the
vicinity of the cavity resonances (these resonances are also shifted
in frequency). The relationship between the equivalent electric and
magnetic currents may be incorrect as a result of the ill conditioned
matrix. The concern is that this may affect the exterior currents (and
hence the scattered fields).
 I

870 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 42, NO. 6. JUNE 1994

2.2 I

C-field -E-field electric current

SiultaneousC-field E-field magnetic current
___----
E-field A C-field electric current
-22 0 C-field w e t i c Current
1.8
-24

-26
1.6 k A
-28

-30

-32

-34

-36

-38 8
7.5 1.55 7.6
ka
1.65 1.7
0.6
o.8 I
0.4F' '
7.5
' ' I
7.55
' ' ' ' '
1.6
' ' "

1.65
' ' ' '
1.1
ka
Fig. 9. Monostatic RCS of a phantom dielectric cylinder of radius a versus
koa. Fig. 10. Equivalent surface currents on the phantom dielectric cylinder
versus k o a

To investigate this problem numerically, a simple two-region

problem is considered. In this problem the scatterer is a dielectric 8.5 c 1
circular cylinder of radius a. For this study the material parameters
of the dielectric are the same as free space. This phantom dielectric
scatterer is useful for numerical experiments because it should have
no scattered field and the equivalent currents on its periphery can C-field
0 SimultaneousC-field
be determined directly from the incident electric and magnetic fields I .__----
E-field
using the expressions
= i r o x aznc
JO
6.5 1
--------=---.
M O= -ire x E'"". (27)
Fig. 9 plots the monostatic RCS of the phantom dielectric cylinder
versus koa for a TM polarized incident wave. In Fig. 9 results
are given for the conventional MM using the C-field formulation,
the region-by-region method using the C-field formulation, and the
region-by-region method using the E-field formulation. The range
4.5 L
of koa was chosen to bracket the m 4 1 resonance frequency of
the interior region. In Fig. 9 the C-field results are identical. These
results show a constant RCS that represents the limit of the numerical
accuracy of the MM. The E-field result clearly shows the effect of
the internal resonance with a peak at the interior resonance frequency. Fig. 11. Monostatic RCS of a dielectric cylinder of radius a versus koa.
Similar effects are seen in Fig. 10, which illustrates the equivalent For this scatterer, e, = 4.
currents calculated using the C-field and E-field formulation with
the region-by-region method. The equivalent currents in Fig. 10 are case, both the electric and magnetic current calculated with the E-
normalized by the incident fields and are plotted at the point that field formulation show the effect of the interior region resonance. The
would be the specular point on a PEC cylinder. The correct magnitude
results of Figs. 9-12 suggest that the use of the C-field formulation in
of the normalized currents for a phantom dielectric is one. The C-
the region-by-region method solves the interior resonance problem.
field formulation yields the correct currents, whereas in the E-field
However, these results may be a function of the expansion and testing
formulation the equivalent electric current shows the effect of the
resonance. Similar results are given in Figs. 11 and 12 for a dielectric functions as well as the program used to solve the matrix equations,
cylinder with E,. = 4. In this case, the range of koa was changed by so additional study is indicated for each application.
a factor of one-half again to bracket the m 1 resonance frequency
Use of the region-by-region method results in a reduction in the
of the interior region. As before, the RCS results calculated using the memory and execution time required to obtain a solution when
C-field formulation with the conventional and the region-by-region compared to the conventional solution. Note that the improvement
methods are the same. These two results are also in agreement with in execution time is due solely to a reduction in the amount of
the series solution for the RCS. As in the phantom dielectric case, time required to solve the matrix equations and that the matrix
the E-field formulation with the region-by-region method shows the fill time for the conventional and region-by-region methods is the
effect of the resonance of the interior region. In Fig. 12 the equivalent same. The amount of reduction in memory required and in matrix
currents calculated using the C-field and E-field formulation with the solution time depends on the scattering body being analyzed. To get
region-by-region method are illustrated. Unlike the phantom dielectric a feel for the improvement, it is instructive to consider some simple
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL.42, NO. 6, JUNE 1994
1.4
Arl
l I
___ E-field electric current
.--_~__
E-fieldmagnetic current
C-field electriccurrent
0 C-fieldmagneticment
0.2
t Aug. 1975
0 1, 1,) I,, 6 1 , -*I
, I C ) ,I , , I , , I , *
3 75 3.76 3.77 3.78 3.79 3.8 3.81 3.82 3.83 3.84 3.85
ka
Fig. 12. Equivalent surface currents on the dielectric cylinder versus koa.
For this scatterer, = 4.
examples. Consider a scatterer composed of a single dielectric. For
this body the storage will be reduced by a factor of 2 and the matrix
solution time will be reduced by a factor of 4. Now consider a 2-
D circular cylindrical scatterer composed of two materials. Assume
that the cylinder is divided in half and that the wavelength in one
of the materials is twice the wavelength in the other. To maintain
a consistent number of zones per wavelength, the number of zones
on the boundary between the exterior medium and the more dense
material in the cylinder must be twice the number of zones on the
boundary between the exterior medium and the less dense material in
the cylinder. Similarly, the number of zones on the boundary between
the less dense material and the more dense material must be a factor of
2/7r times the number of zones on the boundary between the exterior
medium and the more dense material. For this example, storage will
be reduced by a factor of 1.8 and the matrix solution time will
be reduced by a factor of 3.9. Use of the region-by-region method
is particularly advantageous for conducting bodies with dielectric-
filled cavities. Consider a 2-D scatterer that is a square cylinder with
infinitesimally thin PEC walls and a dielectric filling so that one side
of the square is the aperture. Assume that the wavelength in the
dielectric filling it one-third the wavelength in the exterior medium.
To maintain a consistent number of zones per wavelength, the number
of zones on the interior PEC surface must be three times the number
of zones on the exterior PEC surface. Also, the number of zones on
the aperture must be equal to the number of zones on the exterior
PEC surface. For this cavity, storage will be reduced by a factor of
7.2 and the matrix solution time will be reduced by a factor of 24.
V. CONCLUSIONS
This paper presents a region-by-region solution procedure based on
surface integral equations and the method of moments for calculating
the electromagnetic field scattered by an inhomogeneous object
consisting of a number of linear isotropic homogeneous regions. Use
of the region-by-region procedure results in significant savings in
storage and computation time when compared to the conventional
simultaneous solution procedure.
The presence of nonunique solutions has been investigated numer-
ically and does not appear to be a problem if the C-field integral
equation formulation is used.
811
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