Finite-difference methods for computational electromagnetics (CEM)

The authors examine the characteristics of the Lax-Wendroff and Crank-Nicolson schemes as applied to the time-domain Maxwell´s equations. The numerical results, in terms of the surface current and radar cross section (RCS), are compared for two-dimensional scattering problems. The Lax-Wendroff and Crank-Nicolson schemes were applied to the first- and second-order Maxwell´s equations, respectively. The explicit Lax-Wendroff scheme eliminates the need for staggered meshes associated with the popular Yee (1966) algorithm while the implicit Crank-Nicolson scheme eliminates both the need for staggered meshes and the time-step restriction of the explicit schemes. The accuracy of the results obtained for the two-dimensional test problem is very encouraging, indicating that both schemes are good candidates for solving electromagnetic scattering problems in the time domain.<>