EMC Question of the Week: January 22, 2018
The
- Finite Element Method
- Finite Difference Time Domain Method
- Method of Least Squares
- Boundary Element Method
Answer
The correct answer is "d". The Method of Moments is a method for solving an integral form of Maxwell's equations that involves replacing all materials that are not free-space with equivalent surface currents. The surface geometries are then broken into smaller pieces and electromagnetic interactions between all of the pieces are described by a large matrix equation. In other engineering fields, this technique (applied to other forms of integral equations) is commonly called the Boundary Element Method.
Actually, the term Method of Moments pre-dates numerical EM modeling and refers to a general technique (also known as the method of weighted residuals) for solving linear equations numerically. In the 1960s, R.F. Harrington and others pioneered the application of this method to problems in electromagnetics. The technique they developed came to be synonymous with the method used to solve the equations. Today, some electromagnetic modeling codes that employ this technique refer to it as the Boundary Element Method; while others continue to refer to it as the Method of Moments.
Note: There is also a technique for estimating population parameters in statistics that is called the Method of Moments. The two techniques are not the same.
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