Computation of characteristic modes for conducting bodies

A procedure for computing the characteristic modes for conducting bodies of arbitrary shape is developed. The method is applied to conducting bodies of revolution and to wire objects, and general computer programs are discussed. Illustrative examples of the computation of characteristic currents and characteristic fields are given for a cone-sphere, a disk, and a wire arrow. Modal solutions using these modes are computed for representative antenna and scattering problems to illustrate convergence of the solution as the number of modes is increased.