Characteristics of 3D distributed node TLM mesh with cells of arbitrary aspect ratio

The paper describes a modification of the transmission line matrix (TLM) method of numerical analysis in three dimensions. The traditional 3D distributed node (cubic cell) TLM algorithms are generalized for cuboid cells of arbitrary aspect ratio. The basic theory of the cuboid 3D distributed node is described in detail. A full dispersion analysis of the cuboid mesh is performed for the general case, and the results are compared to the characteristics of the traditional cubic mesh. Some applications are shown in this paper. Numerical results for a canonical rectangular waveguide cavity are compared with those obtained with a cubic cell to demonstrate the validity of the algorithm. Based on those comparisons, we demonstrate that the cuboid cell offers greater flexibility in discretization and can save memory as well as CPU time