Eur. Phys. J. Appl. Phys. (2013) 64: 24502
https://doi.org/10.1051/epjap/2013120447

An optimum PML for scattering problems in the time domain^*

¹ Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (Institut Montéfiore), Université de Liège, Grande Traverse 10, 4000 Liège, Belgium
² Laboratoire de Génie Électrique de Paris, UMR 8507 CNRS, Supelec, Universities Paris VI and Paris XI, 11 rue Joliot Curie, 91192 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
³ Institute of Mechanics, Materials and Civil Engineering (iMMC), Université Catholique de Louvain-la-Neuve, avenue George Lemaître 4-6, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
⁴ Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, Université de Liège, Grande Traverse 12, 4000 Liège, Belgium

^a e-mail: a.modave@ulg.ac.be

Received: 5 October 2012
Revised: 30 November 2012
Accepted: 2 January 2013
Published online: 6 November 2013

Abstract

In electromagnetic compatibility, scattering problems are defined in an infinite spatial domain, while numerical techniques such as finite element methods require a computational domain that is bounded. The perfectly matched layer (PML) is widely used to simulate the truncation of the computational domain. However, its performance depends critically on an absorption function. This function is generally tuned by using case-dependent optimization procedures. In this paper, we will present some efficient functions that overcome any tuning. They will be compared using a realistic scattering benchmark solved with the Discontinuous Galerkin method.