A hybrid method combining the Time-Domain Method of Moments, the Time-Domain Uniform Theory of Diffraction and the FDTD

Abstract. In this paper a hybrid method combining the Time-Domain Method of Moments (TD-MoM), the Time-Domain Uniform Theory of Diffraction (TD-UTD) and the Finite-Difference Time-Domain Method (FDTD) is presented. When applying this new hybrid method, thin-wire antennas are modeled with the TD-MoM, inhomogeneous bodies are modelled with the FDTD and large perfectly conducting plates are modelled with the TD-UTD. All inhomogeneous bodies are enclosed in a so-called FDTD-volume and the thin-wire antennas can be embedded into this volume or can lie outside. The latter avoids the simulation of white space between antennas and inhomogeneous bodies. If the antennas are positioned into the FDTD-volume, their discretization does not need to agree with the grid of the FDTD. By using the TD-UTD large perfectly conducting plates can be considered efficiently in the solution-procedure. Thus this hybrid method allows time-domain simulations of problems including very different classes of objects, applying the respective most appropriate numerical techniques to every object.