Discontinuous Galerkin Volume Integral Equation Solution of Scattering From Inhomogeneous Dielectric Objects by Using the SWG Basis Function

A discontinuous Galerkin volume integral equation (DGVIE) method that uses the Schaubert-Wilton-Glisson (SWG) basis function is proposed for the analysis of scattering from inhomogeneous dielectric objects. The main advantages of the proposed DGVIE method are: (1) no hypersingular integrals need to be calculated or compared with other methods that use nonconformal meshes and SWG basis functions; (2) the number of unknowns in the DGVIE method that uses the SWG basis function is less than that in the scheme that uses the piecewise constant vector basis function for the same mesh; and (3) the code of the proposed DGVIE can be easily obtained by a minor modification of the conventional method of moments code. A trial explanation is presented for the fact that the explicit enforcement of the continuity condition at the interface between two elements is not required in the DGVIE. The numerical results are presented to validate the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method.