Computational Electromagnetics
Knowledge Base

Welcome to the Computational Electromagnetics Knowledge Base. The content in the knowledge base is maintained and endorsed by the NAFEMS Computational Electromagnetics Working Group (CEMWG).

Electromagnetic phenomena have been documented and extensively developed from a theoretical standpoint for many hundreds of years. The first notions of electro-statics were developed by Thales of Miletus in 600 BC and Theophrastus in 300 BC. Our current mathematical framework was established between the XVII and XVIII centuries by the works of Ampère, Gauss, Faraday and Maxwell. Nevertheless it remains a complex domain for many engineers because of its counterintuitive outcomes compared to ingrained everyday experience.

Similar to other domains dealing with evolution and propagation of a given physical phenomena, CEM has evolved and branched into several shapes in order to deal with time (evolution) and space (propagation) in the most efficient manners depending on the application at hand. Many methods share common ground with those developed for structural mechanics or computational fluid dynamics.

CEM is often applied in scenarios involving harmonic input loading or signals. This implies that in many cases it is convenient to transform the time evolution into a frequency based one which can simplify the computational endeavour. Otherwise, time-based methods are required. This is also the case if the response of the system is nonlinear.

As the speed at which electromagnetic waves propagate corresponds to the speed of light, “distant” perturbations can have a non-negligible influence. This implies that, more often than not, it is required to take in account the surroundings of the system. The techniques to model these effects share a common ground with typical techniques used in the domain of acoustic waves, such as Boundary Integral Methods or the use of specialised absorbing layers to prevent unwanted simulation boundary interactions.

1. M​ethods

2. Applications

3. B​enchmark Problems

A​cronyms