INCLUSION DETECTION ANALYSIS IN RECTANGULAR DIELECTRIC STRUCTURES USING THE FINITE-DIFFERENCE TIME-DOMAIN TECHNIQUE

This paper describes a study which has shown the feasibility of using a Finite-Difference Time-Domain software package TSAR (Temporal Scatte ring and Response) to generate far-field scattered electric field patt erns for the remote detection of dielectric and metallic inclusions in homogeneous dielectric structures. The far-field scattered patterns o f a homogeneous dielectric structure of rectangular cross section, rep resenting a typical rock sample whose dielectric properties have been measured were calculated using TSAR. Inclusions, both dielectric and m etallic, of various sizes were placed at different locations in this h omogeneous sample. The calculations showed that it was indeed possible to detect the presence, the size, type and location of these inclusio ns to sizes as small as 0.067% of the total sample volume: by observin g the scattered electric field patterns. An application of this study would eventually be for the inverse scattering problem of microwave re mote detection of minerals in rocks.