Original Date: 01/27/1997
Revision Date: 01/18/2007

(equipment: parallel processor, fixed & portable radio frequency instrumented system)
While used for years in industry and government facilities, electromagnetic (EM) modeling has been restricted to discrete elements of a total system problem. These elements must be seamed together, as best as possible, to model the entire system. This procedure offers a slow, often non-exacting process. In recent years, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has developed an EIGER frequency-domain modeling technique and a Distributed Surface Integral (DSI)-TIGER time-domain modeling technique. When performed on a massively parallel, high- speed computer, these techniques will describe currents on 2-D and 3-D objects; impedances; S-parameters; fields at general observation points; far-field patterns and radar cross-sections; and, most importantly, interface to commercial computer aided design for mesh generation. These new modeling tools, together with new computers, allow larger portions of entire systems to be modeled.

EIGER code is a collaborative development by the experts at LLNL; Sandia National Laboratory; University of Houston; and the Navy’s Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation Division and Naval Command Control and Ocean Surveillance Center Laboratory. DSI-TIGER code features object oriented design; serial and parallel platform options; hybrid multi-block, multi-dimensional grids; multiple equation types (e.g., EM, acoustic, elastic); and multiple equation solver approaches (e.g., Finite Difference Time Domain, DSI, Finite Volume Time Domain). Figure 2-1 shows an overview of the DSI-TIGER.

Both codes run on massively parallel computers, allow a quantum advance in EM simulation capability, and lead to innovative solutions of 3-D EM problems of magnitude and complexity not previously possible. Potential applications for these techniques include high power radio frequency sources (gyrotrons and klystrons); accelerator design; low observable aircraft, missile, and unmanned vehicle design; semiconductor interconnect design; integrated photonics device design; and EM interference assessment for ships, land vehicles, and aircraft.

LLNL’s design and development of highly-capable, portable instrumentation which can measure EM coupling has lead to the fabrication of similar units for the Army, Navy, and Air Force. These units combined with computer simulation can accurately characterize potential EM problems of land, sea, or air vehicles.

For more information see the Point of Contact for this survey.