A FIELD-THEORETICAL DERIVATION OF TLM

A field theoretical foundation of the TLM method is presented in this paper. In the derivation of the condensed symmetric TLM node, the Meth od of Moments is applied to Maxwell's equations to obtain discretized field equations. It is shown that the traditional mapping between wave amplitudes and electric and magnetic field components incorporates se rious problems. Therefore, a new mapping between the wave amplitudes a nd the electric and magnetic field components is introduced. Applying the new mapping to the discretized field equations, the fundamental eq uations of the three-dimensional TLM method with condensed symmetric n ode are derived from Maxwell's equations.