TOWARD THE CONSTRUCTION OF A 4TH-ORDER DIFFERENCE SCHEME FOR TRANSIENT EM WAVE SIMULATION - STAGGERED GRID APPROACH

A compact central-difference approximation in conjunction with the Yee grid is used to compute the spatial derivatives in Maxwell's equation s. To advance the semi-discrete equations, the four-stage Runge-Kutta (RK) integrator is invoked, This combination of spatial and temporal d ifferencing leads to a scheme that is fourth-order accurate, condition ally stable, and highly efficient, Moreover, the use of compact differ encing allows one to apply the compact operator in the vicinity of a p erfect conductor-an attribute not found in other higher order methods, Results are provided that quantify the spectral properties of the met hod, Simulations are conducted on problem spaces that span one and thr ee dimensions and whose domains are of the open and closed type. Resul ts from these simulations are compared with exact closed-form solution s; the agreement between these results is consistent with numerical an alysis.