Electromagnetic wave simulation of honeycomb sandwich structures by 3D volume integral equations

The shape of the honeycomb core must be considered in the analysis of the p roblem of electromagnetic wave scattering in a honeycomb sandwich structure at high frequency. The three-layer sandwich structure has the characterist ic of having a very small dielectric region with respect to its entire volu me, since it has a structure in which the upper and lower skin sandwich bet ween them a honeycomb core which contains many honeycomb-shaped holes. On t he other hand, volume integral equations have the advantage of discretizing only the dielectric region, since only the polarized electric current of t he dielectric region is an unknown. Thus, electromagnetic wave simulation o f the three-layer honeycomb sandwich structure by using volume integral equ ations is considered to be an effective means for large-scale precision ana lyses. This paper reports a numerical computing method that takes account o f the shape of the honeycomb core, applying three-dimensional volume integr al equations to the electromagnetic wave scattering problem of the three-la yer honeycomb sandwich structure., and the results of code verification by means of the optical theorem and its reciprocity are presented. In addition , the effectiveness of the proposed numerical computing method is shown by identifying the effects of the honeycomb core on the electrical field inten sity distribution inside the skin. (C) 2001 Scripta Technica.