TY - GEN
T1 - Modelling Arbitrary Complex Dielectric Properties – an automated implementation for gprMax
AU - Majchrowska, Sylwia
AU - Giannakis, Iraklis
AU - Warren, Craig
AU - Giannopoulos, Antonios
N1 - Funding information: The project was funded via Google Summer of Code (GSoC) 2021 programme. GSoC initiative is a global program focused on bringing more student developers into open source software development.
PY - 2021/12/1
Y1 - 2021/12/1
N2 - There is a need to accurately simulate materials with complex electromagnetic properties when modelling Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), as many objects encountered with GPR contain water, e.g. soils, curing concrete, and water-filled pipes. One of widely-used open-source software that simulates electromagnetic wave propagation is gprMax. It uses Yee’s algorithm to solve Maxwell’s equations with the Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) method. A significant drawback of the FDTD method is the limited ability to model materials with dispersive properties, currently narrowed to specific set of relaxation mechanisms, namely multi-Debye, Drude and Lorentz media. Consequently, modelling any arbitrary complex material should be done by approximating it as a combination of these functions. This paper describes work carried out as part of the Google Summer of Code (GSoC) programme 2021 to develop a new module within gprMax that can be used to simulate complex dispersive materials using multi-Debye expansions in an automatic manner. The module is capable of modelling Havriliak-Negami, Cole-Cole, Cole-Davidson, Jonscher, Complex-Refractive Index Models, and indeed any arbitrary dispersive material with real and imaginary permittivity specified by the user.
AB - There is a need to accurately simulate materials with complex electromagnetic properties when modelling Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), as many objects encountered with GPR contain water, e.g. soils, curing concrete, and water-filled pipes. One of widely-used open-source software that simulates electromagnetic wave propagation is gprMax. It uses Yee’s algorithm to solve Maxwell’s equations with the Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) method. A significant drawback of the FDTD method is the limited ability to model materials with dispersive properties, currently narrowed to specific set of relaxation mechanisms, namely multi-Debye, Drude and Lorentz media. Consequently, modelling any arbitrary complex material should be done by approximating it as a combination of these functions. This paper describes work carried out as part of the Google Summer of Code (GSoC) programme 2021 to develop a new module within gprMax that can be used to simulate complex dispersive materials using multi-Debye expansions in an automatic manner. The module is capable of modelling Havriliak-Negami, Cole-Cole, Cole-Davidson, Jonscher, Complex-Refractive Index Models, and indeed any arbitrary dispersive material with real and imaginary permittivity specified by the user.
KW - Havriliak-Negami
KW - Cole-Cole
KW - FDTD
KW - Jonsher
KW - multi-Debye
KW - Electrodynamics
KW - GPR
U2 - 10.1109/iwagpr50767.2021.9843152
DO - 10.1109/iwagpr50767.2021.9843152
M3 - Conference contribution
SN - 9781665446624
BT - 2021 11th International Workshop on Advanced Ground Penetrating Radar (IWAGPR)
PB - IEEE
CY - Piscataway
ER -