Reduced surface integral equations for Laplacian fields in the presence of layered bodies

Abstract

Laplacian potential fields in stratified media are usually analyzed using an integral equation for an unknown function over the union of all the interfaces between regions with different homogeneous materials. In this paper, the field problem is solved using a reduced integral equation involving a single unknown function over only the boundary of the source region. The new integral equation is derived by introducing surface operators to express the potential and its normal derivative on each interface in terms of a single unknown function over the same interface. These operators and the corresponding single functions are obtained recursively, from one interface to the next. Thus, a substantial decrease in the amount of necessary numerical computation and computer memory is achieved especially for systems containing identical layered bodies where the reduction operators are only constructed for one of the bodies. The purpose of this paper is to derive reduced integral equations by directly applying the interface conditions and to show their high computational efficiency for systems of layered bodies.PACS Nos.: 02.30.Rz, 02.70.Pt, 41.20.Cv