Implementation of a First-Order ABC in Mixed Finite-Element Time-Domain Formulations Using Equivalent Currents

In this letter, we describe an easy approach to implement the first-order Bayliss-Turkel-like absorbing boundary condition (ABC) in two mixed finite-element time-domain (FETD) formulations, namely the Crank-Nicolson FETD (CN-FETD) and the leap-frog FETD (LF-FETD). The idea is to introduce a current source distribution on the outer boundary of the domain such that it cancels outgoing waves. The current distribution is obtained based on the ABC relation. In addition, we show that the CN-FETD and the LF-FETD are equivalent to the FETD based on the vector wave equation discretized by the Newmark-β method in time with β = 1/4 and 0, respectively. Having utilized these equivalences, we demonstrate that our approach to implement the ABC in the mixed formulations lead to the same result as the vector wave FETD truncated with the same ABC. A numerical example is provided to validate our formulations.