2016 Progress In Electromagnetic Research Symposium (PIERS), Shanghai, China, 8–11 August

Fast Solution of Volume-surface Integral Equations for

Conducting-dielectric Structures
J. Zhang and M. S. Tong
Department of Electronic Science and Technology
Tongji University, 4800 Cao’an Road, Shanghai 201804, China

Abstract— Electromagnetic problems with both conducting and dielectric media are formu-
lated through volume-surface integral equations (VSIEs) in integral equation approach. The
conducting part is described by surface integral equation while the dielectric part is governed by
volume integral equations (VIEs) and they are coupled together by produced fields. The VSIEs
are usually solved by the method of moments (MoM) in which the electric current density on
the conductor surface is expanded by the Rao-Wilton-Glisson basis function while the volumetric
flux densities inside the dielectric part are represented by the Schaubert-Wilton-Glisson basis
function. In this work, we use a point-matching scheme to discretize the VIEs of dielectric part
and couple it with the MoM for the conducting part. We also incorporate the hybrid scheme
with the multilevel fast multipole algorithm to accelerate the solving process for electrically large
problems. A numerical example is shown to illustrate the approach and good results have been
obtained.

1. INTRODUCTION
Real-world objects or structures are mostly a mixture of conducting media and dielectric materials
and accurate electromagnetic (EM) analysis for such structures is essential in many applications. If
the problem is formulated by an integral equation approach, a mixed form of integral equations is
required to describe the involved EM feature in such structures [1]. The surface integral equations
(SIEs) can be used to describe the conducting part while the dielectric-medium SIEs or volume
integral equations (VIEs) can be employed to govern the dielectric part. Although the SIEs are
preferred when available for the dielectric part, the VIEs are indispensable when the dielectric
medium is inhomogeneous or anisotropic. Also, the VIEs can improve the conditioning of system
matrix because they belong to a second kind of integral equations. When the SIEs for the conducting
part are coupled with the VIEs for the dielectric part, the volume-surface integral equations (VSIEs)
are formed to depict the EM behavior of entire structure.
The VSIEs are usually solved by the method of moments (MoM) in which the electric current
density on the conducting surface is represented with the Rao-Wilton-Glisson (RWG) basis func-
tion [2], while the electric flux density and magnetic flux density inside the dielectric materials are
expanded by the Schaubert-Wilton-Glisson (SWG) basis function [3]. Both the RWG and SWG
basis functions are defined over paired elements and require conforming meshes in geometric dis-
cretization. In this work, we propose a mixed scheme to solve the VSIEs, i.e., using the RWG basis
function to expand the current density on the conductor surface with the MoM frame but employ-
ing a point-matching method to discretize the volumetric dielectric medium. For electrically large
structures, we also incorporate the scheme with multilevel fast multipole algorithm (MLFMA) [4]
to accelerate the solving process. The point-matching method can select volumetric current den-
sities as unknowns to be solved in the dielectric part, making integral kernels be free of material
parameters. This feature can greatly simplify the numerical implementation of MLFMA acceler-
ation because the MLFMA frame will not be changed no matter what materials are involved. A
typical numerical example is presented to demonstrate the scheme and good performance can be
seen.
2. VOLUME-SURFACE INTEGRAL EQUATIONS (VSIES)
Consider the EM scattering by a composite object with both conducting and dielectric media.
We assume that the conducting part is a kind of perfectly electric conductor (PEC) and its EM
characteristic can be described with the following electric field integral equation (EFIE) when
disregarding the coupling with the dielectric part [1]
∫
− n̂ × E (r) = n̂ × iωµ G(r, r′ ) · JS (r′ )dS ′ , r ∈ S
inc
(1)
S

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 2016 Progress In Electromagnetic Research Symposium (PIERS), Shanghai, China, 8–11 August

where JS (r′ ) is the electric current density induced on the conductor surface S whose unit normal
vector is n̂ and Einc (r) represents an incident electric field. Also, G(r, r′ ) is the dyadic Green’s
function defined by ( )
∇∇
G(r, r ) = I + 2 g(r, r′ )
′
(2)
k0
where I is the identity dyad, k0 is the wavenumber of the free space with a permittivity ϵ0 and a
permeability µ0 , and g(r, r′ ) = eik0 R /(4πR) is the scalar Green’s function with R = |r − r′ | being
the distance between an observation point r and a source point r′ . For the dielectric part with a
relative permittivity ϵr which is usually nonmagnetic (the relative permeability is µr = 1.0), we
can use the VIEs to describe it when disregarding the coupling with the conducting part [1]
∫
inc
E(r) = E (r) + iωµ0 G(r, r′ ) · JV (r′ )dr′ , r ∈ V (3)
V

where E(r) is the total electric field and

JV (r′ ) = iωϵ0 (1 − ϵr )E(r′ ) (4)
is the volumetric electric current density inside the dielectric part. When considering the coupling
of fields produced by the surface current density on the conducting part and the volumetric electric
current density inside the dielectric part, we can form the following VSIEs
[ ∫ ∫ ]
′ ′ ′ ′ ′ ′
0 = n̂ × E (r) + iωµ0 G(r, r ) · JS (r ) dS + iωµ0
inc
G(r, r ) · JV (r ) dV , r ∈ S (5)
∫ S
∫ V

E(r) = Einc (r) + iωµ0 G(r, r′ ) · JS (r′ ) dS ′ + iωµ0 G(r, r′ ) · JV (r′ ) dV ′ , r ∈ V (6)
S V

from which the two unknown electric current densities can be determined.
3. FAST SOLUTION OF THE VSIES
We discretize the surface of conducting part into Nc triangular patches while the dielectric part
into Nd tetrahedral elements. The surface current density on the conductor is expanded by the
RWG basis function while the volumetric electric current density inside each tetrahedron in the
dielectric medium is represented by the one at the centroid of that tetrahedron, i.e.,
∑
Nt ∑
Nd
JS (r′ ) = JSn Λn (r′ ), JV (r′ ) = JV n δn (r′ ) (7)
n=1 n=1

where Λn (r′ ) is the RWG basis function defined over the nth pair of triangular patch ∆Tn± and
JSn is the corresponding expansion coefficient. Also, Nt = 1.5Nc is the number of the pairs of
triangular patches on the conductor surface when the thickness of conductor is considered. The
delta-like basis function is introduced to describe the point-matching scheme and JV n = JV (r′n )
acts as an expansion coefficient which is actually the volumetric electric current density at the
centroid of the nth tetrahedron ∆Vn . Substituting the above expansion to Eq. (5) and using the
RWG basis function as a testing function to test the equation, we obtain
∑
Nt ∫ ∫ Nd ∫
∑ ∫
′ ′ ′
JSn dSΛm (r)· G(r, r ) · Λn (r )dS + dSΛm (r) · G(r, r′ )dV ′ · JV n
±
n=1 ∆Tm ∆Tn± ±
n=1 ∆Tm ∆Vn
∫
1
= − Λm (r) · Eex (r) dS, m = 1, 2, . . . , Nt . (8)
iωµ0 ∆T ±
m

Substituting the above expansion to Eq. (6) and performing a point-matching procedure on those
centroids of tetrahedrons in the dielectric medium, or equivalently, using the delta-like basis function
as a testing function to test the equation, we have
∑
Nt ∫ Nd ∫
∑
′ ′ ′
t0 J V m = JSn G(r, r ) · Λn (r ) dS + G(r, r′ ) dV ′ · JV n , m = 1, 2, . . . , Nd (9)
±
n=1 ∆T
n n=1 ∆Vn

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2016 Progress In Electromagnetic Research Symposium (PIERS), Shanghai, China, 8–11 August

where t0 = [k02 (ϵr − 1)]−1 . The above equations can also be written into a scalar form which can
be easily changed into a matrix form. For electrically large objects, we can incorporate the above
scheme with the MLFMA to accelerate the solving process. The implementation of MLFMA based
on the MoM can be found in [4], but we need to change the radiation pattern and receiving pattern
for the dielectric part so that the point-matching procedure can be incorporated. This change can
actually simplify the MLFMA because of the feature of point-matching scheme and also keep the
MLFMA unchanged for different materials because the integral kernel of VIE does not include any
material parameters.
4. NUMERICAL EXAMPLE
We consider the EM scattering by a relatively large composite scatterer to demonstrate the proposed
approach. The scatterer is a conducting sphere with a dielectric coating as shown in Fig. 1 and the
radius of conducting sphere is a1 = 3.0λ while the outer radius of dielectric coating is a2 = 4.0λ.
The dielectric coating is nonmagnetic and its relative permittivity ϵr = 3.0. The incident wave
is a plane wave with a frequency of f = 300 MHz and is propagating along the −z direction.
We calculate the bistatic radar cross section (RCS) for the object observed along the principal
cut (θ = 0◦ –180◦ and ϕ = 0◦ ) and Fig. 2 plots the solution for the bistatic RCS in horizontal
polarization. The solution is compared with the exact Mie-series solution [5] and they are very
close to each other.
50
z
40
Bistatic Radar Cross Section (dB)

30

20
a2
10
a1
0
O y
-10
PEC
Exact
-20 VSIEs
Dielectric
x ε r , µr -30
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180
θ (Degrees)

Figure 1: Geometry of a conducting sphere with a

dielectric coating. The radius of conducting sphere Figure 2: Bistatic RCS solution of a conducting
is a1 = 3.0λ and the outer radius of dielectric coating sphere with a dielectric coating observed along the
is a2 = 4.0λ. The dielectric coating has a relative principal cut (horizontal polarization).
permittivity ϵr = 3.0.

5. CONCLUSION
We formulate EM problems with both conducting and dielectric materials by the VSIEs. Tradi-
tionally, the VSIEs are solved by the MoM in which the electric current density on the conductor
surface is expanded by the RWG basis function while the volumetric current densities inside the
dielectric part are represented by the SWG basis function. The used basis functions are defined over
element pairs and require conforming meshes, leading to much inconvenience in implementation.
In this work, we use a point-matching scheme to replace the MoM for the dielectric part and couple
it with the MoM for the conducting part. The hybrid scheme can simplify the implementation and
also allow the use of nonconforming meshes for dielectric part. For electrically large problems, we
incorporate the hybrid scheme with the MLFMA to accelerate the solution and the MLFMA can
keep unchanged for different dielectric materials. A numerical example is presented to demonstrate
the approach and its good performance has been verified.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China with the Project
No. 61271097.

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 2016 Progress In Electromagnetic Research Symposium (PIERS), Shanghai, China, 8–11 August

REFERENCES
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2. Rao, S. M., D. R. Wilton, and A. W. Glisson, “Electromagnetic scattering by surfaces of
arbitrary shape,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., Vol. 30, No. 3, 409–418, May 1982.
3. Schaubert, D. H., D. R. Wilton, and A. W. Glisson, “A tetrahedral modeling method for
electromagnetic scattering by arbitrary shaped inhomogeneous dielectric bodies,” IEEE Trans.
Antennas Propagat., Vol. 32, No. 1, 77–85, Jan. 1984.
4. Chew, W. C., J. M. Jin, E. Michielssen, and J. M. Song, Fast and Efficient Algorithms in
Computational Electromagnetics, Artech House, Boston, 2001.
5. Ruck, G. T., D. E. Barrick, W. D. Stuart, and C. K. Krichbaum, Radar Cross Section Hand-
book, Plenum Press, New York, 1970.

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