Radiation and scattering from electrically small conducting bodies of arbitrary shape above an infinite ground plane

A simple moment solution is given for the low-frequency electromagnetic scattering or radiation problem involving a small perfectly conducting body of arbitrary shape placed close to an infinite ground plane. The method of images is used to account for the presence of the ground plane. The dynamic problem is approximated by two uncoupled problems, an electrostatic one and a magnetostatic one. Each static problem is then solved using the method of moments. The surface of the perfectly conducting scatterer is modeled by a set of planar triangular patches. Pulse expansion and point-matching testing are used in the electrostatic problem. For the magnetostatic problem, a set of solenoidal vector expansion functions is used. The induced dipole moments are computed from the induced electrostatic charge and the magnetostatic current densities. The scattered field is the field of these induced dipoles oscillating with the frequency of the incident field. Scatterers of various shapes are studied. Special attention is given to a conducting box on the ground plane.