A spectrally accurate algorithm for electromagnetic scattering in three dimensions

In this work we develop, implement and analyze a high-order spectrally accurate algorithm for computation of the echo area, and monostatic and bistatic radar cross-section (RCS) of a three dimensional perfectly conducting obstacle through simulation of the time-harmonic electromagnetic waves scattered by the conductor. Our scheme is based on a modified boundary integral formulation (of the Maxwell equations) that is tolerant to basis functions that are not tangential on the conductor surface. We test our algorithm with extensive computational experiments using a variety of three dimensional perfect conductors described in spherical coordinates, including benchmark radar targets such as the metallic NASA almond and ogive. The monostatic RCS measurements for non-convex conductors require hundreds of incident waves (boundary conditions). We demonstrate that the monostatic RCS of small (to medium) sized conductors can be computed using over one thousand incident waves within a few minutes (to a few hours) of CPU time. We compare our results with those obtained using method of moments based industrial standard three dimensional electromagnetic codes CARLOS, CICERO, FE-IE, FERM, and FISC. Finally, we prove the spectrally accurate convergence of our algorithm for computing the surface current, far-field, and RCS values of a class of conductors described globally in spherical coordinates.