Full-wave 3D-modeling of ground-penetrating radars by a finite element/boundary element-hybrid technique

A full-wave 3D-hybrid field calculation technique is presented for the calculation of ground-penetrating radar systems. The approach combines the method of moments applied to a surface integral equation formulation (boundary element method (BEM)) being the favourite technique for the modeling of metallic antenna structures with the analytic Green´s function description of plane layered media and with a finite element (FE) model of possibly buried objects. So, only the metallic parts of the antennas and the buried objects have to be discretized, whereas the air/soil-interface or interfaces between different soil layers are included into the formulation based on the Green´s functions of the plane layered medium. The method was applied to the simulation and optimization of resistively loaded and shielded bow-tie antennas and to the simulation of practical radar configurations. Numerical results and measurements are presented