The bistatic scattering pattern from a thin conducting plate is calculated using XFdtd^® and compared with results calculated using the Method of Moments.

The bistatic scattering pattern from a 5 wavelength by 5 wavelength square thin conducting plate is calculated using XFdtd and compared with results calculated using the Method of Moments [The Ohio State Electromagnetic Surface Patch Code (ESP4) by E. H. Newman and D. L Dilsavor]. The XFdtd mesh in Figure 1 is 116 x 116 x 41 cells of 6.67 cm. The frequency is 300 MHz, so that the wavelength is one meter. The plate is therefore 75 x 75 cells or 5 m x 5 m in the FDTD mesh. An incident plane wave at an angle of 30 degrees off normal to the plate excites the calculation. Both TE and TM polarizations are calculated. The geometry is described on pages 591-592 of Advanced Engineering Electromagnetics by Balanis, which also includes a discussion of the ESP computer program.

The XFdtd calculations included 2000 time steps, probably more than was necessary for convergence.The TE and TM calculations each took about 15 minutes on a 400 MHz PC running Windows NT. The agreement with the ESP4 results is excellent. While a simple target, the plate illustrates the accuracy of XFdtd and is easily calculated by ESP4.