FINITE DIFFERENCE TIME-DOMAIN APPROXIMATION OF MAXWELL'S EQUATIONS WITH NON-ORTHOGONAL CONDENSED TLM MESH.

A convex hexahedral TLM mesh of arbitrary shape is presented and the transmission-line matrix method extended to any non-orthogonal configuration. The novel mesh constitutes a natural generalization of Johns' condensed node. The associated TLM process is analysed and reconstructed as a genuine finite difference time-domain algorithm. Nodal S-parameters are derived from discretized Maxwell's equations and canonical stability criteria yield the TLM timestep. Unitarity is discussed and energy conservation confirmed in the non-conductive case. A given block-diagonal representation of the S-matrix restrains processing time per node and iteration within the range of traditional methods. The shortcomings of the rigid classical grid, as the need for inaccurate staircasing approximations, are, however, ruled out. Our analysis takes advantage of the recently developed propagator integral approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]