A single-boundary implicit and FFT-accelerated time-domain finite element-boundary integral solver

A novel time-domain finite-element boundary integral (FE-BI) solver for analyzing broadband scattering and radiation from free-standing electromagnetically large and perfect electrically conducting platforms supporting inhomogeneous and geometrically intricate structures is presented. The solver has three distinctive features that render it especially attractive for broadband analysis of installed antennas. i) The FE and BI solver components are hybridized using a single-surface interface. ii) The hybrid equations are solved by an implicit time-marching scheme accelerated by an (outer) Jacobi iterative solver that leverages (inner) direct FE and iterative BI solvers. iii) The BI solver component is accelerated by a distributed memory parallel implementation of the time-domain adaptive integral method based on the message-passing interface. The accuracy, late-time stability, and performance of the proposed time-domain FE-BI solver are demonstrated via its application to various scattering and radiation problems; moreover, the solver is used to characterize conformally mounted antennas on several platforms including an aircraft.