Modelling characteristics using FDTD

Modelling characteristics using FDTD



I am modelling the effect of soil heaps on radio signals (Think radio communication between mine dumps.) and would like to know what permittivity, permeability and electrical conductivity values one should use in the FDTD. I am currently making some loose assumptions on conductivity from a Geophysical book by Telford. What to do about the permittivity and permeability values?

I note in some of the literature that soil is defined as a dielectric and that permittivity is complex . Is this really necessary ? Could one only use the static permittivity for soil ? Not much description of permeability effects, although I imagine that this will be handled in same way as permittivity.

This is a great question and I hope that you get an answer. I don't have it for you, but I used to be office neighbors with somebody doing this. I can say that it will be critical for you to incorporate conductivity, not just a real valued permittivity. I don't know about the permeability. Another thing I recall is that the dispersion was important. That is, incorporating frequency dependent properties. This is a bit more challenging in FDTD.

Do you know anything about the soil? Does it have a high iron content or something like that which may give it a higher permeability? Can you get a soil sample and measure the permittivity and permeability?