Abstract: Based on the large dimension of the solar panel compared with the main body in the satellite model, the conformal boundaries are implemented, i.e., the outlines of the total field boundary, near-to-far field extrapolation boundary and absorbing boundary are the same as that of the target. This scheme is applied to the FDTD analysis for satellite model scattering to reduce memory space and computation time. Firstly, the three conformal boundaries in FDTD are considered. The boundary condition at the 270°corner is particularly analyzed in detail. Then the electric dipole radiation is computed to test the applicability of conformal absorbing boundaries, which demonstrates the efficiency in absorbing the outward wave. Finally, the back scattering by the satellite model is computed by using conformal boundaries. The far-zone time domain waveform obtained is in good agreement with that calculated by FDTD of conventional rectangular boundaries, which validates the presented scheme. The FDTD calculation performance is improved using the conformal boundaries in the satellite model. It saves the memory about 40. 7％ and shortens the computation time.

Key words: conformal boundary, FDTD method, satellite model