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 pacts 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.