Motivation

The interaction of electromagnetic waves with matter underlies many important engineering applications. For example, radar involves the scattering of electromagnetic pulses from targets and understanding the effects of microwave radiation on biological tissue involves the scattering of electromagnetic waves from complicated, penetrable targets. Another large class of problems of particular interest to one of us (P. Monk) is microwave imaging and non-destructive testing. In these problems we attempt to infer properties of hidden objects by their effects on microwave signals. Examples are again radar, ground penetrating radar (for example for mine-detection) and attempts to use microwaves to image inside the human body.

All these problems require an efficient code to simulate the propagation electromagnetic waves. In a recent paper, Cessenat and Despres [1,2] suggested a new method for solving this problem called the Ultra Weak Variational Formulation (UWVF). This formulation has potential advantages over standard finite element methods. One of us (Monk) has implemented a serial code for this problem in F90. This code is the subject of our parallelization attempts.