Free software for microwave simulation?

[Ulysees]

Anyone know some decent free software for simulating microwaves in full detail? Ideally I'd like to input autocad drawings to it, of metallic structures, and see the power distribution in 3D.

 

[lorenz]

I am working on a full-wave time-domain microwave simulator - the emGine Environment. You can give it a try:

http://www.petr-lorenz.com/emgine

Import from autocad is, however, not implement for now. But, since the emGine GUI is an open source project, you can try to connect the GUI to existing libraries.

 

[Ulysees]

That's cool!

Can I ask you a couple of questions about the tlm method.

1. Do you make the grid finer at boundaries?

2. Will it give physically correct results at frequencies well below microwave frequencies? (I think materials are modeled differently at lower frequencies, right?)

3. Can the same method be used in the atomic scale, if yes, how are wavefunctions dealt with?

 

[lorenz]

Thanks! To your questions:

1. I do not, for now, use a graded mesh, so the cell size is uniform. However, it is possible to implement a graded mesh, where the cell size is, like you say, smaller near the boundaries of discontinuities.

2. The TLM method as I am using is, like the FDTD, a time-domain method, where the frequency domain response is obtained via a Fourier transform. So, the low-frequency solution below microwave frequencies is included in the simulation (if included in the spectrum of the excitation signal). However, the simulation time needs to be chosen long enough, to get the information. Also, the imperfect simulation boundaries affect at low frequencies the solution.

3. I have seen some recent papers from Pierantoni dealing with TLM and Wave functions (http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freeabs_all.jsp?arnumber=4373543). I do not have any direct experience with this.

 

[Ulysees]

That paper seems such a good idea, if we can simulate molecules in so much detail, who knows what revolutionary materials we can come up with.

Can your method deal with moving charge distributions? If not, can it easily be made to?

Any chance of simulating gas ionisation near the sharp ends of a charged conductor?

 

[Ulysees]

Anyway, can you recommend any forums about the TLM and FDTD methods? Or other resources you found useful?

 

[lorenz]

The TLM is simulating the macroscopic (classical) Maxwell's equations, so any microscopic effect needs to be coupled to the "macroscopic" field.

Moving charge distributions are electric currents in TLM. Charge in space can be included via the conductivity of material (what engineers characterize by a "tan delta" of a material).

As far as the forums are concerned, I do not know for now any. But you may take a look at the wikipedia page, there is quite a lot of interesting stuff which can take you further: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computational_electromagnetics

 

[trstlm]

hi Ulysees & lorenz,

I from india. i am very interested with TLM method. This is the first forum i found on tlm peoples. nice to see. i had some experience with MEFISTO 3D. I had lots of questions during the simulation. I had applied it for EMC/EMI simulation. Pls help me in this regard. But i see this thread was not active for few months. so pls send me a PM.


thank you

 

[Sheindor]

hello, I'm trying emGine and it looks great.

does anybody know if emGine can deals with wires?

Thanks

 

[waht]

Anyone know some decent free software for simulating microwaves in full detail?

Ansoft: http://www.ansoft.com/ansoftdesignersv/