Hybrid finite-difference time-domain modeling of curved surfaces using tetrahedral edge elements

A hybrid finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method is proposed for solving transient electromagnetic problems associated with structures of curved surfaces. The method employs the conventional FDTD method for most of the regular region but introduces the tetrahedral edge-based finite-element scheme to model the region near the curved surfaces. Without any interpolation for the fields on the curved surface, nor any additional stability constraint due to the finer division near the curved surfaces, the novel finite-element scheme is found to have second-order accuracy, unconditional stability, programming ease, and computational efficiency. The hybrid method is applied to solve the electromagnetic scattering of three-dimensional (3-D) arbitrarily shaped dielectric objects to demonstrate its superior performance.