Discontinuous Galerkin time‐domain solution of Maxwell's equations on locally refined grids with fictitious domains

Purpose – The use of the prominent finite difference time‐domain (FDTD) method for the time‐domain solution of electromagnetic wave propagation past devices with small geometrical details can require very fine grids and can lead to unmanageable computational time and storage. The purpose of this paper is to extend the analysis of a discontinuous Galerkin time‐domain (DGTD) method (able to handle possibly non‐conforming locally refined grids, based on portions of Cartesian grids) and investigate the use of perfectly matched layer regions and the coupling with a fictitious domain approach. The use of a DGTD method with a locally refined, non‐conforming mesh can help focusing on these small details. In this paper, the adaptation to the DGTD method of the fictitious domain approach initially developed for the FDTD is considered, in order to avoid the use of a volume mesh fitting the geometry near the details.Design/methodology/approach – Based on a DGTD method, a fictitious domain approach is developed to dea...