IEEE TRANSACTIONS

ANTENNAS
ON AND PROPAGATION, VOL. AP-32,NO. 1 , JANUARY 1984 77

A Tetrahedral Modeling Method for Electromagnetic Scattering by

Arbitrarily Shaped Inhomogeneous Dielectric Bodies

i“
Absmacf-A method for calculatingthe electromagnetic scatteringfrom
andinternalfielddistributionofarbitrarilyshaped, inhomogeneous,
dielectric bodies is presented. A volume integral equation is formulated
and solved by using the method of moments. Tetrahedral volume ele-
ments are used to model a scatteringbody in which the electricalparam-
eters are assumed constant in each tetrahedron. Special basis functions
are defined within the tetrahedral volume elements to insure that the
normal electric field satisfies the correct jump condition at interfaces
betweendifferentdielectricmedia. An approximate Galerkintesting
procedure is used, with special care taken to correctly treat the deriva-
tives in the scalar potential term. Calculated internal field distributions
and scattering cross sections of dielectric spheres and rods are compared
to and found in agreemeut with otber calculations. The accuracy of the
fields calculated by usingthetetrahedralcell method is found to be
comparable to that of cubical cell methods presently used for modeling
arbitrarily shaped bodies, while the modeling flexibility is considerably
greater.

I. INTRODUCTION
HE INTERACTION of electromagnetic waves with dielectric
T b o d i e s has been extensively studied because of its importance
to problems including propagationthrough rain orsnow,scat-
tering by and detection of airborne particulates,medical diagnos-
ticsand power absorption in biological bodies,couplingto
missiles with plasma plumesor dielectric-filled apertures,and
performance of communicationantennas in the presenceof
dielectric and magneticinhomogeneities. When the size of the
dielectric body is neither large nor small compared to the wave-
length of the excitation, asymptotic methods cannot be used to
solve theinteractionproblem.Intheintermediate size region,
often called the resonanceregion,arigorous solution of Max-
well’s equations is required.
The work of Richmond [ l ] , [2] heralded the use of modem
computational methods t o solve dielectric interaction problems.
A number of methods have been developed and applied to two-
and three-dimensional scatteringproblems[3]-[12].Someof
thesemethods have been demonstratedonlyforhomogeneous
bodies while others are restricted to bodiesof revolution.The
methods of [6] and [7] are based on time-domain formulations
and may not be well-suited to single frequency applications. The
methods of [8] -[IO] utilize cubical or rectangular cells to model
the bodyandtheyare applicable to arbitrarilyshaped bodies.
Manuscript received March 28,1983;revised August 26,1983.
D.H. Schaubert was with the Division of Electronic Products, Bureau
of Radiological Health, Rockville, MD. He is now with the Department of
Electrical and ComputerEngineering, University of Massachusetts, Amherst,
MA 01003.
D. R. i l l t o n was with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Uni-
versity of Mississippi, University, MS. He is now with the Department of
Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77004.
A. W . Glisson is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Uni-
versity of Mississippi, University, MS 38677.
Fig. 1. Piecewise homogeneousdielectricbodymodeledbytetrahedral
volume elements.
However, in ordertoaccuratelymodelarbitrarily curved body
surfaces, many cells may be required. Also, in these approaches
pulse basis functions were used toexpandtheunknown field
within the body. This can lead to a divergence of the numerical
solutions when the cells are subdivided to obtain a better repre-
sentation of the body [13, p. 591 .
An arbitrarily shaped,inhomogeneousbodywith piecewise
constant electrical parameters is shown inFig. 1.The simplest
volume element that can be used to model each homogeneous
region of the body is the tetrahedron, which is defined by four
vertices and is boundedbyfour triangularfaces. Any volume
that is bounded by a polygonal surface or specified by discrete
points on the boundary surfacecan be decomposed into tetra-
hedral elements. Higher order elements, such as cubes and paral-
lelepipeds, can be formedby combining tetrahedralelements.
The advantages of tetrahedral elements for volume modeling are
analogoustothe advantages of triangles for surface modeling
~ 4 1 [151.
,
Special vector basis functions are defined for use in conjunc-
tion with the tetrahedral elements. These functions are analogous
totherooftopfunctionsthat are used for rectangularsurface
patches in conductor scattering [16] and are constructed to have
continuous flux densityacross the faces of the tetrahedrons.
Inthenextsection,the volumeintegral equationforthe
scattering problem is developed and converted to a matrix equa-
tion by the method of moments [13]. In Section 111, numerical
results are presented. Only results for relatively simple bodies are
presented because the accurate numerical and experimental data
needed to assess the accuracyof thetetrahedral calculations is
not presently available for complex, three-dimensional bodies.

0018-926X/84/0100-0077$01.00 0 1983 IEEE

. 78 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. AP-32, NO.1, JANUARY 1984

11. FORMULATION
Derivation of Volume Integral Equation
Let V denote the volume of a lossy, inhomogeneous, dielec-
tric body with complex dielectric constant &r,) = e(r) - ju(r)/w
where E and u are the medium permittivity and conductivity at
r. An electric field E', defined to be the field due to animpressed
source J' in the absence of the body,is incident on the body.
Decomposing thetotal electricfield intoanincidentanda
scattered field where the scattered field is due to avolume polari-
zation current J,
J(r) =jw[?(r) - E,] E(r) (1) 'W
Fig. 2. Pair of tetrahedronsand geometrical parameters associated with
leads t o nth face.
E(r) = E'(r) + ES(r) (2)
with respect to the free vertex of T i . Similar remarks apply to
where points in T i and the position vector p i , except that the latter
ES(r) = -jwA(r) - V@(r) is directedtowardthefreevertex of T;. Theplus or minus
designation of a tetrahedron is determined by the choice of a
e-fkolr-r'l
positive flux reference direction, which is assumed to be from
A(r) = !
!! J(r') dv'
47i Ir-r'I to T i . The basis functions that areused for the moment method
solution of (2) are such that one basis function is associated with
@(r) = -
471e0 v
1
P(r'>
e-jk,-,lr-r'i

Ir-r I
, dv' (5)
each face of the tetrahedral model of Y.The basis function as-
sociated with the nthface is

and k , = w G = 27r/h0. The charge density p(r) is related to

the polarization current in(1) by
V J(r) = -jwp(r). (6)
Equation (2). taken with (1) and (3)-(6) constitutes an in-
otherwise
tegro-differential equation for the polarization current J. In the
following, however, it is found convenient to express J in terms
where a, is the area of the face and P
'
:
is the volume of T,'.
(Note the convention that subscripts refer t o faces while super-
of the intermediate quantity
scripts refer to tetrahedrons.)
D = ;E (7) Theunknown electric fluxdensitythatenters (2) through
(3)-(6) can be represented throughout Y by
which has a continuous normal component at media interfaces.
From (7) and (1) it follows thatJ can be written A'
D(r) = QA(~). (1 1)
J(r) = jwK(r)D(r) (8) n= 1

where the contrast ratio
now accounts for all discontinuities in the normal component of
J at media interfaces.
Basis Functions
The volume Y is assumed to be subdivided into a number of
tetrahedralelements such that an inhomogeneous dielectric
region is approximated by a number of tetrahedrons, in each of
which the dielectric properties are approximated as constant. A
homogeneous dielectric region is boundedbya surface that is
approximated by triangular faces assigned so as to fit the shape
of the surface well and also meet the modeling guidelines dis-
cussed in Section 111.
Once thevolume of thescatterer hasbeen appropriately ~~
The summation is over the N faces that make up the tetrahedral
model of V.
The basis functions f,(r) have several propertiesthatmake
them useful for representing D(r).
1) Within each tetrahedron D(r) is the sumof four linearly
independent basis functions(one associated witheach face)
which can be combined to represent aconstantvector in any
direction.
2) f,(r) has n o component normal to anyface except the com-
mon face of the conjoinedpair I;: and T i .
3 ) The component off, normal to the nthface is constant and
continuous across theface because thenormalcomponent of
p: along face n is just the height of T,' with face n as the base
and the heightexpressed as 3 Vila,. This latter factor normalizes
f, in (10) such that its flux density normal to face n is unity,
ensuring continuity of the component off, normal to the face.
4) The divergence of the basis function is
~

modeled by tetrahedral volumes, the faces of the tetrahedrons are

of primary importance for the development of the basis func-
tions. Fig. 2 showstwotetrahedrons,and T i , associated with
V fn(r) =
the nth faceof the subdivided region V modelingascatterer.
Pointsinmaybe designated eitherbytheposition vector r
defined with respect to 0, or by the position vector p ; defmed 0, otherwise
SCHAUBERT et a l . : ELECTROMAGNETIC
MODELING
where the divergence in T,' is given by (p:)-2a[ *(pi)2fn]/api.
The charge density, which is proportional t o O a f , through (6),
(8), and (1 l), is constant within each tetrahedron.
5) The moment off, over T i is
where pi' is the vector between the free vertex and the centroid
of T,' with p:- directed toward and p$+ directed away from the
vertex. Equation (13) may be most easily derived by expressing
the integral in terms of volume coordinates 1171.
6) If face n is on the boundary of V , then only one of the
tetrahedrons, or T i , is interior to V. In this case it is assumed
that f, is defined only over the interior tetrahedron and that the
exterior tetrahedron is not defined.
Some of the less obvious of these properties can be verified by
arguments similar to those in [15]. An important interpretation
of (1 1) that follows from 1) and 3) is that the expansion coeffi-
cient D, represents the normal component of D(r) at the nth
face.
The modeling properties of thebasis functions f, are similar to
those of the rooftop functions [16] that are used to model sur-
face current distributions. Property 1) guarantees that the expan-
sion (1 1) can provide at least a piecewise constant approximation
to the flux density. Furthermore, each function varies linearly
with distance from its defining vertex. This provides some capa-
bility to model linear field variations. However, like the rooftop
functions, these basis functions are constantinthe transverse
direction so they cannot accurately represent a vector field with
arbitrary linear variation; they can reproduce linear variations of
the field only if the variation is parallel to the direction of the
field defined by the basis function.
Inorderto solve ( 2 ) with D(r) representedby (1 l),it is
necessary to find expressions for J(r) and p(r) in terms of the
basis functions and expansioncoefficients. From (1 1) and (8)
_.
N
J(r) = jw DnK(r)fn(r).
n= 1
In (14), the parameter K(r) is taken inside the summation to em-
phasize that the polarization or contrast current at each point in
the body is a weighted sum of the basis functions at that point
times a factor that describes the medium at that point. By sub-
stituting (1 4) into (6) and using (1 2 ) , the charge density is found
t o be represented by
N N
P(r) = -
n= 1
D,K(r)O - f,(r) - 2 D,f,(r)
n= 1
* OK(r). (15)
The first summation is the induced volume charge densities pun
associated with the basis functions and can be evaluated with the
aid of (1 2)
(16)
rETi
otherwise
where K; is the constant of K(r) in c.The second sum-
mation in (15) representstheinduced surfacechargedensities
associated with the basis functions. When the nth face separates
79
dissimilar media, K is discontinuous and its gradient is a genera-
lized function representingasurfacecharge density psn, resid-
ing on a,,
Aninducedvolume charge associated witheach basis function
exists in eachtetrahedronforwhichthemediumparameters
differ from those of free space. Itcan be shown that the formula-
tion of the problem in (1)-(6) guarantees that the total volume
charge in a homogeneous region is zero. In the numericaI proce-
dure, the total volume charge, which is the sum of the volume
charges associated with the four basis functions in each tetrahe-
dron, is not explicitly constrained to be zero, but should besmall
for any solution that is close to the true solution. An induced
surface charge exists only on faces that separate dissimilar media,
andthe charge density is constant on suchfaces.Thecorrect
surface charge representation is obtained at the faces because of
the careful construction of the representation of J.' Equations
(1 l), (14), and (15) can be used in (2)-(7) to obtain an equation
involving only the unknown coefficients {D,}and known vector
functions.
Testing Procedure
The next step in applying the method of moments is t o select
a testing procedure that will generate N independent equations
fortheunknownexpansioncoefficients.Theexpansionfunc-
tions f, developed in the previous section are chosen as testing
functions. With a symmetric product defined as
(2) is tested with f,, yielding
(D/t, f,) + j d A , f,) + (VQ, f,) = ai,f,),
m = 1, 2 , .-,AT. (19)
Thisrepresents N equationsforthe AT unknowncoefficients
{D,} and can be written in matrix form
as
[Smn1 [Dn1 = [ E m1 (20)
where [S,,] is an Ar X N matrix with dimensions of m4/F, and
[D,] and [E,] are column vectors of length AT. Since the ele-
ments of [S,,] and [E,] cannot be evaluatedinclosed form,
it is necessary to derive accurate and efficientnumerical approxi-
mations for these quantities. Formulas for the matrix elements
and some considerations relevant to their computation are given
in the Appendix.
111. NUMERICAL RESULTS
Inorder to testtheaccuracy of thesolutionsobtainedby
using the present method, it is necessary t o apply the method to
1 The representation is achieved by expressing J intermsof D. How-
ever, V.(tE) = 0 so that if D = ;E had been chosen as the unknown it
would have been possile to impose on the basis set the condition that D
is divergenceless. This would result in fewer unknowns than the present
method, which imposes the condition numerically, but it greatly compli-
catestheprocedureofgenerating the basis functions. This alternative
formulation, which apparently has not been previously explored,is worthy
of further investigation because the savinBthatresult from fewer un-
knowns may outweigh the additional complexity of the basis functions.
 80 TRANSACTIONS
IEEE
ANTENNAS
PROPAGATION,
ON
AND VOL. A P - 3 2 , N O . 1, JANUARY 1984

problemsfor which accuratesolutions are available. Unfortu-

nately, very few three-dimensional dielectric scattering problems
can be solved analytically.Since thehomogeneous sphere and
layered, inhomogeneous sphere are examples where the scattered
fields can be analytically determined, theseexamplesare con-
sidered below. The radar cross section of a dielectric rod is also
calculatedandcomparedtothe resultsof other numerical
methods and to available experimental data.
Modeling Considerations
Themostarduoustask required forthesolution of three-
dimensionalscattering problems by the tetrahedral cell method
is the development ofa multicell model that accurately represents
the physical body. Although someautomatic grid generation
schemes may be helpful in this task, the models for the examples
shown below were developed manually with theaid of interactive
stereo graphics. The procedure that was used for model develop-
ment consisted of three basic steps.
1) Model the surfaces of eachhomogeneous dielectric sub-
region with triangularfaces.This step ensures proper modeling
of the boundary shape of each subregion. The approximation of
the surfaces by triangularfaces is essentially the same as that
required by the method of Rao, Wilton, and Glisson [ 151 for
conducting bodies. Experienceindicatesthat usefulresults for
scattered field quantities often can be obtained when the edges of
the triangular faces are longer than 0.25 wavelengths in the dielec-
tricmedium,butaccuratedeterminationoftheinternal fields
usually requires that theedge lengths be about onehalf this value.
Best results have been obtained when the triangularfacesare
approximately equilateral.
2) Divide each dielectricsubregion intotetrahedral volume
elements. For best results, tetrahedrons should be approximately
equilateral.
3) Electrical parameters are assigned to each tetrahedron. For (C)
the examples shown below this was accomplished by interactively Fig. 3. Model of sphereconsisting of threeconcentriclayersoftetra-
using computer generated stereographics. hedrons. (a) Top view. @) Outersurfaceofoneeighth of sphere.
Tetrahedral models usually require fewer unknowns per volume (c) Interior subdivision of oneeighth of sphere into 27 tetrahedrons.
elementthan cubicalmodels. This is because thetetrahedral
modelsrequireoneunknown pertriangularface. Forinterior
oftheinternal field. Atlowfrequenciestheinternal electric
tetrahedrons where eachface is commontotwotetrahedrons,
this results in only two unknowns per tetrahedron compared to
field is constantand can be shown tobeequalto 3 / ( ~ , 2) +
times the incident field. The calculated field is within 10 percent
the three unknowns that are required for each cubical element.
of thisvalue.
As an example oftetrahedral modeling,consider the sphere At higher frequencies, theinternal field exhibits a standing
shown in Fig. 3. Thismodelforthesphere was developed as wave behavior. Trueand calculated electric field distributions
described above and consists of three concentric layers of tetrahe- inside a sphere ofmoderate size are shown in Fig. 4. A 512-
dral cells comprising a total of 216 cells in the entire sphere. The
tetrahedron model was used for the sphere,which has a radius of
diameter of the model is such that the total volume of the 216 0.39 wavelength relative tothe dielectric medium.The agree-
. tetrahedrons is equal to the actual volume of the sphere that is ment between the field calculated via the tetrahedral method and
being modeled. The model consistsof 468 faces,which means the Mie series solution [19] is very good. As already mentioned,
that 468 unknownsare required if the symmetry is not exploited. therepresentation (1 1) provides at least a piecewise constant
However, the number of unknowns can be reduced to 135 if one approximation to theinternal fields.2
makes use of two planes of symmetry.
Dielectric Sphere
2 All plots of internal field that are shown in this paper display the
The 216-tetrahedron sphere model has been used to calculate interpolated field values as obtained from the basis functionsthat are
the radar cross section of an electrically small sphere. The agree- used in the moment method This convention was chosen instead of plot-
ment of the results withthe Rayleigh theory [ l X ] approxima- ting the calculated field values at discrete points for two reasons: 1) the
centroids of the faces and tetrahedrons, which are the logical and conven-
tion, which is asymptoticallycorrectat lowfrequencies, is
tional points to use for numerical evaluations, do not lie along a line or in
excellent. However, the radarcross section is not sensitive to a plane and cannot be readily displayed in a two-dimensional graph, and
minor errors in the internal field distribution. Therefore, a more 2) for applications where internal field distributionis important the ability
critical check on the accuracy of the calculations is the accuracy of the basis functions to accurately represent the true field is of interest.
SCHAUBERT et a l . : ELECTROhfAGNETIC MODELING 81

0-5 r
0.4
[ x cubes
(R\kspollmuang & Chen)

--
>
-
0.3

w"
- 0.2

0.1

I I I I
-1.0 -0.5 0 0.5 1.o
w
Fig. 4.
21 a
Field along z axis inside lossless dielectric sphere; .+ = 36, koa =
-1.0
I
-0.5
\-.' I
0
I
0.5
\

1.o
I

0.408.
Zla
Fig. 5. Absorbed power distribution along z axis of lossy dielectric sphere;
As a further check on the results of the case shown in Fig. 4, E~ = 35, tan 6 = 0.39, k g = 0.577.
the values of the expansion coefficients D, in (1 I), whichare
equal to the electric flux density normal to the associated face of
the tetrahedral model, were compared to the true values at the
centroid of each face. The worst-case error of these coefficients
was found not to exceed 10 percent of the largest coefficient,
and for most points the error was less than 5 percent. The tet-
rahedral calculations utilized two planes of symmetry so that the
computations could be performed with304 unknowns.
The fieldsinside a lossy sphere have also beencalculated.
These fields agree well with the true fields as indicated in Fig. 5,
which is a plot of the absorbed power distribution along the z
axis. Also shown are the results obtained by Rukspollmuang and
Chen [20] who used cubical cells with pulse basis functions and
point matching.
One of the primaryadvantagesof tetrahedral cell modeling
is the ability to model arbitrarilyshaped inhomogeneities.The
tetrahedral and cubical models that were used to obtain the re-
sults in Fig. 5 are approximately equivalent in termsofthe -1 .o -0.5 0 0.5 1.0
number of unknowns that are used to represent the field, but not
in terms ofmodeling capability.The512-tetrahedronmodel ZI a
(a)
has 1088 unknowns. The 320-cube model has three unknowns
per cube, so it resultsin 960 unknowns for the entire sphere.
Stateddifferently,with only 13 percentmoreunknowns,the
r c
tetrahedralmodel has 60 percentmore volume elementswith
which torepresentinhomogeneous regions in the sphere. To
demonstrate the usefulness of this capability it would be neces-
sary to calculate the field inside a body with one or more irregu-
0.8 1 \
\
\
\

larly shaped inhomogeneities. However, the only such bodies for

which analytical solutions are known to the authors are spheres
with spherically symmetric inhomogeneities. Therefore, the fields
inside a two-layeredsphere have been calculated by using the
512-tetrahedron model and are compared to the analytical solu-
tion inFig. 6. Thetetrahedralsolution agrees well withthe
analytical solution except in the \lcinity of the discontinuity in
E.x at the dielectric interface along the x axis. Thetetrahedral
0 0.5 1.0 0 0.5 1.o
solution appears toviolate the boundary condition,
Xla Xla
(3) (C)

Fig. 6. Fields inside lossless, inhomogeneous sphere; = 16, k g 1 =

However, theapparent discrepancyresults fromtheparticular 0.0595, er2 = 9, koaz = 0.13. (a) Magnitude of E , along z axis. (b) Mag-
model that was used for the sphere. In the actual sphere, E, is nitude of Ex along I axis. (c) Magnitude of E , along x axis.
normal to the dielectric interface at the x axis, but in the tet-
rahedral model, the dielectric interface coincides with a triangular
82 TRANSACTIONS
IEEEANTENNAS
ON AND PROPAGATION, VOL. AP-32, NO. 1 , JANUARY 1984

facethat is notperpendiculartothe axis (see, forexample, .016 - Tetrahedrons (Triangular Rod)

Fig. 3(b)). Therefore, the x component of the electric field for -- Richmond Cirwlar Rod (Integral Eqn)
thetetrahedralsolution is notthecomponentnormaltothe A Wang & Papanlcolopulos(Square Rod)
0 Richmond (Experiment)
interface.Thetetrahedralsolutiondoes satisfy(21) exactlyat
facesbecause the basis functions(10)andthe field expansion .012
(1 1) were constructed to insure this.
Scattering Calculations
Althoughtheaccuracy of internal field values is a more 5.008 MHz
stringent test of a computational method than is the accuracy of
scattered fields, it is difficult to accurately measure the fields
inside most dielectric objects.Furthermore,manyapplications
require only scattering data and not internal field data. Conse- .004
quently,thescattering cross sectionsof dielectric objectsare
calculated and compared to published data. The comparison of
thesescatteringdata, whichare obtained by differentmethods I I I
and by measurements, serve as an indicator of the overall accu- 1.o 15 20 2.5 cm
racy of the tetrahedral method. 0.317 0.475 0.633 0.792 I\,
Length
The radar cross section of a thin dielectric rod (radius = 0.16
cm) has been computed and compared to the results of Rich- Fig. 7. Radar cross section of a thin dielectric rod;a = 0.16 cm = 0.05 x,
= 2.54.
mond [21] and Wang and Papanicolopulos [22]. These data are
shown in Fig. 7 , where the agreement is seen to be excellent. The
results of Wang andPapanicolopulos were obtainedwiththe
cubical cell method of Livesay and Chen [ 9 ] . The thin rod was
modeled by a single column of cubeswith cross-sectional area
equal to the circular rod. The tetrahedral model was a triangular
column with the same cross-sectional area as the circular rod.
The scattering cross section of a dielectric sphere can be cal-
culated analytically from the Mie series expansion for the internal
fields. In Fig. 8, the results of the tetrahedral model calculations
are compared to those of Barber, Owen, and Chang [ 2 3 ] , who
employed the series expansion.Thecalculations used the 512-
tetrahedronmodelforthe sphere. Theresonantfrequency is
predicted within1 percent. Similar calculationswiththe216-
tetrahedronmodelpredict the resonantfrequencywithin
percent, but the scattering cross section is 35 percent below the
2
-_- Mie Series
(Barber,
Owen & Chaw 17 :\
I \
true value. A slightly lossy sphere with the index of refraction I I I I/, L-7

equal to 6j.01 was also analyzed with the two models, and the
predicted cross sections were slightly more accurate than for the
lossless sphere.
These calculations illustrate the improvement in the computed
solutions that results from,using smaller volumeelementsand
moreunknownstomodelthesphere. Table I showsthe edge
lengthsandtetrahedron volumes forthe above calculationsat
the peak of the scattering cross section. The parameters for the
model that was used to obtain the results shown in Fig. 4 are
also shown. It is evident from these data that the best results are
obtained when the average edge length is somewhat less than
0.25 wavelengths in the dielectric medium.
Computation Time
An important aspect of any numerical solution is the amount
of computer time required to obtain the desired accuracy in the
solution. The accuracies that have been achieved with the tetrahe-
dralmodeling programare illustratedbythe examplesabove.
Thecomputationtimes required forsome ofthese solutions
arepresented in Table 11. These times are for a VAX 11/780
computer running under the VMS operating system. The matrix
fill time is quitelong because of a large number of numerical
integrations that arerequired to evaluate the vector and scalar
0.1 09 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
b
Fig. 8. Total scattering cross section of dielectric sphere.
potential contributions. Considerable savings in computation time
are achieved by using the computed integrals in as many matrix
elements as possible (similar to the procedure described by Rao,
Wilton, and Glisson [ 151). All volume and surface integrations
wereevaluated by using special numericalintegrationformulas
fortetrahedrons andtriangles [24] requiring five and seven
points, respectively. The 1/R singularity in the self-terms was
extractedandintegrated analytically [25].Thetable also con-
tains a comparison of the tetrahedral method with a cubical cell
method (pulse basis functions and point matching) developed by
Hagmann, Gandhi and Durney [ 101 . The time required to fdl the
matrix for the tetrahedral model was about four times that re-
quiredforthe cubical model.This difference in fdling times
would be reduced or eliminated by decreasing the order of the
numerical quadrature scheme when the integrand is slowly vary-
ing. The fill time per element is greater for the problems with two
symmetry planesbecause there are fourportionsofthebody
(one real and three images) that contribute to each matrix element.
 SCHAUBERT er al.: ELECTROMAGNETIC MODELING 83

TABLE I
PARAMETERS O F SPHERICAL MODELS

NUHBER OF EDGE LENGTHS/ id* TETRAHEDRON VOLUNES/A d

KODEL UAKKOHNS rnin. max.
nin. avg. max avg. .

512-Tetrahedron
Sphere(Fig. 8)
koa ~ 0 .0.214
5 1 7 7 0.315 0.127 1088 3 .14.916. ~
78 1
~
5 01
~ -01~-0~- ~

216-Tetrahedron
Sphere
koa = 0.5207 0.175 468 O.li16 0.283 8 . ,9. 21 .~331~801~-01~-0~- ~

512-Tetrahedron
Sphere(Fig. 4)
kna = 0.408
0.169 0.248 0.100 1088 1 . 6 9 ~ 1 0 - ~ 8.22x10-' 4.83~10-~

*Ad i s thewavelength i n thedielectric medium

T A B L E I1
COhlPUTATION TIhlES

NUMBER OF NUMBER OF SOLUTIONTIt4E

MODEL UYKYOGR~S SYMMETRY
PLANES MATRIX FILL TIME (L
bUy -facto~ization)

3-Layer Sphere 135 2 283.67 s e e 64.87sec

ka = 0.500 (15.6rnsec/element)
(Pig. 8 )

4-Layer Sphere 304 2 1372.48 s e c 734.64 s e c

k a = 0.408 (14.8msec/element)
(Pig. 4)

Rectangular Box 200 0 179.10 s e c 209.41 s e c

Modeled by (4.5msec/elernent)
Tetrahedrons

Rectangular Box 192 0 42.96 s e c 178.55 s e c

Modeled by Cubes (1.2msec/elernent)

IV. SUMMARY unknowns as the cubicalmodeling methods,butwithmuch

greater modeling flexibility. In particular, the tetrahedral models
A new method for computing the electromagnetic fields scat-
have almost 50 percentmore volume elementsforthe same
tered from and penetrating into arbitrarily shaped, three-dimen-
number of unknowns.Furthermore, arbitrarilyshaped bound-
sional, inhomogeneous dielectric bodies has been presented. The
aries of homogeneous subregions can be modeled more accurately
method is based upon the use of tetrahedral volume elements,
by the triangular faces, which are not restricted in their spatial
which are the simplest polyhedral volume elements that can be
orientation.
' used to model three-dimensional bodies. Special basis functions
The new tetrahedral modeling method also overcomes the
have beendeveloped to represent the fieldwithineach tetrahe-
fundamental limitation of pulse basis functions that are used for
dron. These basis functions automatically incorporate the bound-
the existingcubicalmodeling methods. The basis functions for
ary conditions of the normal component of electric flux density,
which is related to thesurface polarization charge density. the tetrahedral elements are constructed to produce the correct
jump in the normal component of E without fictitious surface
The testing procedure that is used for the method of moments
solution is an approximate Galerkin procedure. The formulation
charges. Thisshould ensureconvergencewith no numerical
instabiiities when the model is successively subdivided to achieve
is exactlyGalerkin,butthe requiredvolume integration is ap-
greater accuracy.
proximated by recognizing that the vector potential A and the
scalar potential Q, are slowly varying and approximately constant
within each tetrahedron. APPENDIX
Numericalresults
indicate that
the
tetrahedral modeling ELEMENTS OF THE MATRIX AND EXCITATIOX VECTOR
method predicts the internal field distribution and scattered field
at least as accurately as existing cubical modeling methods. This The formulas that are used to fill the matrix [S,.] and the
accuracy is achieved withapproximatelythe same number of excitation vector [E,] are derived from (19) as follows. The fist
84 IEEE TRANSACTIONS
ANTENNAS
ON
term of (19) can be writtenas
N centroidofface m when
n=l
(Recall that f, is zero outside of T i . ) Theseintegrals can be
evaluated by utilizingnormalizedvolume coordinates [17]. By
using the volume coordinate representation of the basis functions
and formulas for integationin volume coordinates [17, appendix
41, the integal offi*fj over T p can be evaluated as
where rcP is the vector from 0 to the centroid of T p and rl , r 2 ,
are vectors from 0 to the vertices of T. This result can be
r 3 , r4
used t o complete the evaluation of (22).
The second term and the right side of (1 9) both involve an
integration over a vector field, and they can be treated similarly.
In particular, A and E’ are assumed to vary slowly enough to be
approximated within each tetrahedron by their values at the cen-
troid of the tetrahedron. Then, by (13),
4
If T L or T i is not in V(T; V ) ,then the correspondin,0 term is
absent in (24). In (24), rh’ is the vector from 0 to the centroid
of T i and p&’ is the vector from the vertex opposite a, in T i
to the centroidof T i .
The scalar potential term of (19) can be written as
where S is the boundary of V . Since the tangential component of
f, is discontinuous at tetrahedral boundaries, verification of (25)
requires that the contributions fromindividual tetrahedral volume
elements and their boundaries be summed. This leads directly to
the last term of (25). The surface integral follows from the fact
that the normal component of f, is continuous or vanishes at
all boundaries internal to V . Then, with the assumption that @ is
sufficiently slowly varying that it may be replaced by its value at
the centroid ofa tetrahedron or face,(25) becomes
AND PROPAGATION, VOL. AP-32,
NO. 1, JANUARY 1984
*
The argument (r&’ 1/3p&’) denotes that @ is evaluated at the
$ V . When theelementsof [S,,]
are calculated, the contributions t o A and @ from a single basis
function are needed. Theieare given by
dv’ ]
dv’
dv’- (” -
an
’“/an
e- j k R
7ds.] , (28)
where K ; is taken to be zeroif T,‘ 4 V.
By expressing them in termsof normalized volumecoordi-
nates, the integrals in (27) and (28) may be readily evaluated
numerically,Theycan, in fact, be expressed interms of four
independent scalar integralsover eachtetrahedron.Thesefour
integralscontributeto 16 differentelements of [S,,] . Con-
siderable savings in computation time is achieved by making use
of these multiple contributions.
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85
Daniel H. Sehaubert (S’68-M’7&SM‘79) re-
ceived the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in elec-
trical engineering from the University of Illinois.
From 1974 to 1980, Dr. Schauben was a Senior
Research and Development Engineer at Harry
Diamond Laboratories, Adelphi, MD. From 1980
to 1982 he was a project engineering and program
manager at the Bureau of Radiological Health,
Rockville, MD. He is currently Associate Profes-
sor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the
University of Massachusetts. His current research
interests include antenna design and analysis and
numerical solution of electromagnetic scattering problems. He is particularly
interested in problems involving dielectric media and applications to mono-
lithic integrated circuits at microwave and millimeter wave frequencies, and
in radiation of short-duration pulses.
Dr. Schauben is a Past Chairman of the Washington, DC chapter of the
IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society and of the Society’s Membership
Committee. He is a member of the Society’s Administrative Committee and
Editor of its Newsletter. He has served on the Technical Review Committee
for the Joint ServicesElectronics Program and several ad hoc panels, and is a
member of Eta Kappa Nu and Tau Beta Pi.
Donald R. Wilton (S’63-~1’65-M’7~SM’80), for a photograph and biog-
raphy please see page 4 of the January 1983 issue of this TRANSACTIONS.
Allen W. Glisson (S’71-M’78), for a photograph and biography please see
page 418 of the May 1982 issue of this TRANSACTIONS.