New paradigms for rigorous modeling and fast solution of large-scale EMC problems

自然或故意产生的电磁场以部件和系统的故障或明确故障的形式表现出其不利影响。一般的关键基础设施，尤其是电力系统，在受到不同来源产生的电磁场，如地磁暴和闪电回击电流时，必须确保连续和可靠的运行。雷电电流及其相关电磁场--也称为闪电电磁脉冲(LEMP)--对电网(电力系统、通信站点和控制中心)的有害影响早已为人所知。关于地磁场，一个现实的例子是1989年魁北克水电系统的停电，这可归因于一次大规模的太阳活动。评估电磁场对电网、通信系统、输油管道、电气化运输系统等的不利影响一直是必不可少的。将上述电磁场及其不利影响的准确量化视为一个涉及复杂传播介质的大规模电磁兼容问题，即非均匀、离散的地面和不规则的地形。对于如此大规模的电磁兼容问题，现有的计算程序包由于其计算性能的限制和建模工作的考虑，无法进行精确的建模。这项提议的目标是开发严格和高性能的计算方法，以有效地建模和解决严格的大规模EMC问题。该计算平台容纳了先进版本的电磁学数值方法，如针对大规模多尺度EMC问题而设计和定制的有限差分法和矩量法。因此，提出的研究计划的目标是：(1)一个统一的计算框架，能够分析涉及不均匀和弥散的地面、非线性、弯曲或粗糙传播地形的现实问题；(2)结合基于硬件的并行技术使用的高性能计算算法；(3)用于传播电磁场和具有任意拓扑和元件的复杂网络之间相互作用的高效建模和仿真算法。拟议研究计划的长期目标是为科学界和工程师提供先进、高性能的强大工具，用于对不同类型的大规模EMC问题进行全波建模，特别是参考接地系统、地磁扰动、雷电电磁场及其与复杂电气化基础设施的相互作用。

Naturally or intentionally created Electromagnetic (EM) fields manifest their adverse effects in the form of malfunction or definitive failure of components and systems. Critical infrastructures in general and electrical power systems in particular must ensure continuous and reliable operation when subjected to EM fields generated by different sources such as geomagnetic storm and lightning return stroke current. The detrimental impacts of lightning current and its associated electromagnetic fields -also called lightning electromagnetic pulse (LEMP)- on electrical networks (power system, communication sites and control centers) have long been known. Regarding the geomagnetic fields, a realistic example is the blackout in the Hydro-Quebec power system in 1989 which is attributed to a large solar activity. It is always essential to assess adverse effects of EM fields on electrical power networks, communication systems, oil pipelines, electrified transportation systems and etc. The accurate quantification of the above-mentioned EM fields and their adverse effects is viewed as a large-scale Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) problem involving complex propagation media, i.e. inhomogeneous, dispersive ground and irregular terrain. Accurate modeling of such large-scale EMC problem is beyond the capability of the existing computational packages mainly due to their computational performance limitations and modelling effort concerns. The objective of this proposal is to develop rigorous and high-performance computational methods for the efficient modeling and solution of stringent large-scale EMC problems. The computational platform accommodates advanced version of numerical methods in electromagnetics such as Finite Difference Time Domain and Method-of-Moments designed and customized for large multiscale EMC problems. The proposed research program therefore aims to develop: (1) a unified computational framework, capable of analyzing realistic problems involving inhomogeneous and dispersive ground, nonlinearities, curved or rough propagation terrain, (2) high-performance computation algorithms used in conjunction with hardware-based parallelization techniques and (3) efficient algorithms for heterogeneous modeling and simulation of interaction among propagated EM fields and complex networks with arbitrary topology and elements. The long-term objective of the proposed research program is to provide the scientific community and engineers with advanced, high performance robust tools for full-wave modeling of different types of large-scale EMC problems with particular reference to grounding systems, geomagnetic disturbances, lightning electromagnetic fields and their interaction with complex electrified infrastructures.