Comparison of integral-equation formulations for the fast and accurate solution of scattering problems involving dielectric objects with the multilevel fast multipole algorithm

Abstract

We consider fast and accurate solutions of scattering problems involving increasingly large dielectric objects formulated by surface integral equations. We compare various formulations when the objects are discretized with Rao-Wilton-Glisson functions, and the resulting matrix equations are solved iteratively by employing the multilevel fast multipole algorithm (MLFMA). For large problems, we show that a combined-field formulation, namely, the electric and magnetic current combined-field integral equation (JMCFIE), requires fewer iterations than other formulations within the context of MLFMA. In addition to its efficiency, JMCFIE is also more accurate than the normal formulations and becomes preferable, especially when the problems cannot be solved easily with the tangential formulations.