Computational issues of an electromagnetics transient meshless method

In this paper we refer to the computational issues in solving Maxwell’ s curl equations without using any connectivity among the points in which the problem domain is discretized. The adopted procedure is able to approximate the electric and magnetic vector fields making use of the derivatives of a kernel function at points arranged in the computational domain. In order to improve the numerical accuracy, dealing with irregular data distribution or data located near the boundary, a suitable strategy is considered. The computational core of the overall process requires elementary linear algebra operations. In the paper the method is presented and the discussion is revolved to the computationa…

Highlighting numerical insights of an efficient SPH method

Abstract In this paper we focus on two sources of enhancement in accuracy and computational demanding in approximating a function and its derivatives by means of the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics method. The approximating power of the standard method is perceived to be poor and improvements can be gained making use of the Taylor series expansion of the kernel approximation of the function and its derivatives. The modified formulation is appealing providing more accurate results of the function and its derivatives simultaneously without changing the kernel function adopted in the computation. The request for greater accuracy needs kernel function derivatives with order up to the desidered …

Avoiding recurrence in multiscale environments

On the Consistency Restoring in SPH

On invariant manifolds of saddle points for 3D multistable models

In dynamical systems a particular solution is completely determined by the parameters considered and the initial conditions. Indeed, when the model shows a multistability, starting from different initial state, the trajectories can evolve towards different attractors. The invariant manifolds of the saddle points separate the vector field into the basins of attraction of different stable equilibria. The aim of this work is the reconstruction of these separation surfaces in order to know in advance the geometry of the basins. In this paper three-dimensional models with three or more stable fixed points is investigated. To this purpose a procedure for the detection of the scattered data lying …

Unconditionally stable meshless integration of Maxwell's eqautions

Wavelet-like bases for thin-wire integral equations in electromagnetics

AbstractIn this paper, wavelets are used in solving, by the method of moments, a modified version of the thin-wire electric field integral equation, in frequency domain. The time domain electromagnetic quantities, are obtained by using the inverse discrete fast Fourier transform. The retarded scalar electric and vector magnetic potentials are employed in order to obtain the integral formulation. The discretized model generated by applying the direct method of moments via point-matching procedure, results in a linear system with a dense matrix which have to be solved for each frequency of the Fourier spectrum of the time domain impressed source. Therefore, orthogonal wavelet-like basis trans…

Un solutore pseudospettrale basato su RBF per l'equazione di Helmoltz

Polynomial mapped bases: theory and applications

Abstract In this paper, we collect the basic theory and the most important applications of a novel technique that has shown to be suitable for scattered data interpolation, quadrature, bio-imaging reconstruction. The method relies on polynomial mapped bases allowing, for instance, to incorporate data or function discontinuities in a suitable mapping function. The new technique substantially mitigates the Runge’s and Gibbs effects.

Un solutore meshfree per EEG e MEG

Regularization of optical flow with M-band wavelet transform

The optical flow is an important tool for problems arising in the analysis of image sequences. Flow fields generated by various existing solving techniques are often noisy and partially incorrect, especially near occlusions or motion boundaries. Therefore, the additional information on the scene gained from a sequence of images is usually worse. In this paper, discrete wavelet transform has been adopted in order to enhance the reliability of optical flow estimation. A generalization of the well-known dyadic orthonormal wavelets to the case of the dilation scale factor M > 2 with N vanishing moments has been used, and it has proved to be a useful regularizing tool. The advantages in the comp…

Un metodo numerico meshfree particellare nel dominio del tempo per l’analisi elettromagnetica: sviluppo di applicazioni 3D

An advanced variant of an interpolatory graphical display algorithm

In this paper an advanced interpolatory graphical display algorithm based on cardinal B-spline functions is provided. It is well-known that B-spline functions are a flexible tool to design various scale rapresentations of a signal. The proposed method allows to display without recursion a function at any desiderable resolution so that only initial data and opportune vectors weight are involved. In this way the structure of the algorithm is independent across the scale and a computational efficiency is reached. In this paper mono and bi-dimensional vectors weight generated by means of centered cubic cardinal B-spline functions have been supplied. (© 2004 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Wei…

Finite difference time domain simulation of soil ionization in grounding systems under lightning surge conditions

This paper proposes a Maxwell’s equations finite difference time domain (FDTD) approach for electromagnetic transients in ground electrodes in order to take into account the non linear effects due to soil ionization. A time variable soil resistivity method is used in order to simulate the soil breakdown, without the formulation of an initial hypothesis about the geometrical shape of the ionized zone around the electrodes. The model has been validated by comparing the computed results with available data found in technical literature referred to concentrated earths. Some application examples referred to complex grounding systems are reported to show the computational capability of the propos…

Towards an Efficient Implementation of an Accurate SPH Method

A modified version of the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method is considered in order to overcome the loss of accuracy of the standard formulation. The summation of Gaussian kernel functions is employed, using the Improved Fast Gauss Transform (IFGT) to reduce the computational cost, while tuning the desired accuracy in the SPH method. This technique, coupled with an algorithmic design for exploiting the performance of Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), makes the method promising, as shown by numerical experiments.

Electrical analogous in viscoelasticity

In this paper, electrical analogous models of fractional hereditary materials are introduced. Based on recent works by the authors, mechanical models of materials viscoelasticity behavior are firstly approached by using fractional mathematical operators. Viscoelastic models have elastic and viscous components which are obtained by combining springs and dashpots. Various arrangements of these elements can be used, and all of these viscoelastic models can be equivalently modeled as electrical circuits, where the spring and dashpot are analogous to the capacitance and resistance, respectively. The proposed models are validated by using modal analysis. Moreover, a comparison with numerical expe…

A Smoothed Particle Interpolation Scheme for Transient Electromagnetic Simulation

In this paper, the fundamentals of a mesh-free particle numerical method for electromagnetic transient simulation are presented. The smoothed particle interpolation methodology is used by considering the particles as interpolation points in which the electromagnetic field components are computed. The particles can be arbitrarily placed in the problem domain: No regular grid, nor connectivity laws among the particles, have to be initially stated. Thus, the particles can be thickened only in distinct confined areas, where the electromagnetic field rapidly varies or in those regions in which objects of complex shape have to be simulated. Maxwell’s equations with the assigned boundary and initi…

The smoothed particle hydrodynamics method via residual iteration

Abstract In this paper we propose for the first time an iterative approach of the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method. The method is widespread in many areas of science and engineering and despite its extensive application it suffers from several drawbacks due to inaccurate approximation at boundaries and at irregular interior regions. The presented iterative process improves the accuracy of the standard method by updating the initial estimates iterating on the residuals. It is appealing preserving the matrix-free nature of the method and avoiding to modify the kernel function . Moreover the process refines the SPH estimates and it is not affected by disordered data distribution. W…

CARATTERIZZAZIONE ELETTROMAGNETICA DEL COMPORTAMENTO DINAMICO DI ELETTRODI INTERRATI IN PRESENZA DI IONIZZAZIONE DEL TERRENO

A wavelet operator in solving electromagnetic fields equations in time domain

Detecting tri‐stability of 3D models with complex attractors via meshfree reconstruction of invariant manifolds of saddle points

In mathematical modeling it is often required the analysis of the vector field topology in order to predict the evolution of the variables involved. When a dynamical system is multi-stable the trajectories approach different stable states, depending on the initialmconditions. The aim of this work is the detection of the invariant manifolds of thesaddle points to analyze the boundaries of the basins of attraction. Once that a sufficient number of separatrix points is found a Moving Least Squares meshfree method is involved to reconstruct the separatrix manifolds. Numerical results are presented to assess the method referring to tri-stable models with complex attractors such as limit cycles o…

An implicit time domain meshless formulation for Maxwell’s PDEs

Fake Nodes approximation for Magnetic Particle Imaging

Accurately reconstructing functions with discontinuities is the key tool in many bio-imaging applications as, for instance, in Magnetic Particle Imaging (MPI). In this paper, we apply a method for scattered data interpolation, named mapped bases or Fake Nodes approach, which incorporates discontinuities via a suitable mapping function. This technique naturally mitigates the Gibbs phenomenon, as numerical evidence for reconstructing MPI images confirms.

A full wave three dimensional meshless approach for electromagnetic transients

Multiscale Particle Method in Solving Partial Differential Equations

A novel approach to meshfree particle methods based on multiresolution analysis is presented. The aim is to obtain numerical solutions for partial differential equations by avoiding the mesh generation and by employing a set of particles arbitrarily placed in problem domain. The elimination of the mesh combined with the properties of dilation and translation of scaling and wavelets functions is particularly suitable for problems governed by hyperbolic partial differential equations with large deformations and high gradients.

A renormalized formulation of SPH method

Un metodo meshfree implicito nel dominio del tempo per l'analisi elettromagnetica in transitorio

Viscoelasticity: an electrical point of view

Time dependent hereditary properties of complex materials are well described by power-laws with real order exponent. This experimental observation and analogous electrical experiments, yield a description of these properties by using fractional-order operators. In this paper, elasto-viscous and visco-elastic behaviors of fractional order hereditary materials are firstly described by using fractional mathematical operators, based on recent work of some of the authors. Then, electrical analogous models are introduced. Viscoelastic models have elastic and viscous components which can be obtained by combining springs and dashpots: these models can be equivalently viewed as electrical circuits, …

Smoothed Particle Electromagnetics Modelling on HPC-GRID Environment

In this paper a meshless approach on a high performance grid computing environment to run fast onerous electromagnetic numerical simulations, is presented. The grid computing and the message passing interface standard have been employed to improve the computational efficiency of the Smoothed Particle Electromagnetics meshless solver adopted. Applications involving an high number of particles can run on a grid computational environment simulating complex domains not accessible before and offer a promising approach for the coupling of particle models to continuous models. The used meshless solver is straightforward to program and fully parallelizable. The results of the parallel numerical sch…

A normalized iterative Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics method

Abstract In this paper we investigate on a normalized iterative approach to improve the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) estimate of a function. The method iterates on the residuals of an initial SPH approximation to obtain a more accurate solution. The iterative strategy preserves the matrix-free nature of the method, does not require changes on the kernel function and it is not affected by disordered data distribution. The iterative refinement is further improved by ensuring linear approximation order to the starting iterative values. We analyze the accuracy and the convergence of the method with the standard and normalized formulation giving evidence of the enhancements obtained wit…

Un modello numerico particellare per la magnetoencefalografia

The Method of Fundamental Solutions in Solving Coupled Boundary Value Problems for M/EEG

The estimation of neuronal activity in the human brain from electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG) signals is a typical inverse problem whose solution pro- cess requires an accurate and fast forward solver. In this paper the method of fundamental solutions is, for the first time, proposed as a meshfree, boundary-type, and easy-to-implement alternative to the boundary element method (BEM) for solving the M/EEG forward problem. The solution of the forward problem is obtained by numerically solving a set of coupled boundary value problems for the three-dimensional Laplace equation. Numerical accuracy, convergence, and computational load are investigated. The proposed met…

First Experiences on an Accurate SPH Method on GPUs

It is well known that the standard formulation of the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics is usually poor when scattered data distribution is considered or when the approximation near the boundary occurs. Moreover, the method is computational demanding when a high number of data sites and evaluation points are employed. In this paper an enhanced version of the method is proposed improving the accuracy and the efficiency by using a HPC environment. Our implementation exploits the processing power of GPUs for the basic computational kernel resolution. The performance gain demonstrates the method to be accurate and suitable to deal with large sets of data.

A numerical method for imaging of biological microstructures by VHF waves

Imaging techniques give a fundamental support to medical diagnostics during the pathology discovery as well as for the characterization of biological structures. The imaging methods involve electromagnetic waves in a frequency range that spans from some Hz to GHz and over. Most of these methods involve scanning of wide human body areas even if only small areas need to be analyzed. In this paper, a numerical method to evaluate the shape of micro-structures for application in the medical field, with a very low invasiveness for the human body, is proposed. A flexible thin-wire antenna radiates the VHF waves and then, by measuring the spatial magnetic field distribution it is possible to recons…

A novel numerical meshless approach for electric potential estimation in transcranial stimulation

In this paper, a first application of the method of fundamental solutions in estimating the electric potential and the spatial current density distribution in the brain due to transcranial stimulation, is presented. The coupled boundary value p roblems for the electric potential are solved in a meshless way, so avoiding the use of grid based numerical methods. A multi-spherical geometry is considered and numerical results are discussed.

Numerical solution of electric field integral equation for thin-wire piecewise antennas shape reconstruction

Numerical Investigations of an Implicit Leapfrog Time-Domain Meshless Method

Numerical solution of partial differential equations governing time domain simulations in computational electromagnetics, is usually based on grid methods in space and on explicit schemes in time. A predefined grid in the problem domain and a stability step size restriction need. Recently, the authors have reformulated the meshless framework based on smoothed particle hydrodynamics, in order to be applied for time domain electromagnetic simulation. Despite the good spatial properties, the numerical explicit time integration introduces, also in a meshless context, a severe constraint. In this paper, at first, the stability condition is addressed in a general way by allowing the time step inc…

An Efficient Numerical Method for Time Domain Computational Electromagnetic Simulation

In this paper an efficient numerical method in approximating the electric and magnetic fields is provided. The method is based on an implicit leapfrog arrangement in time and without mesh in space. Moreover, a projection scheme is introduced in order to improve the accuracy of the proposed approach and applied into the computational electromagnetic (CEM) framework. The PDEs governing the process are solved and some numerical results are reported to validate the numerical process.

On the distribution of lightning current among interconnected grounding systems in medium voltage grids

This paper presents the results of a first investigation on the effects of lightning stroke on medium voltage installations' grounding systems, interconnected with the metal shields of the Medium Voltage (MV) distribution grid cables or with bare buried copper ropes. The study enables us to evaluate the distribution of the lightning current among interconnected ground electrodes in order to estimate if the interconnection, usually created to reduce ground potential rise during a single-line-to-ground fault, can give place to dangerous situations far from the installation hit by the lightning stroke. Four different case studies of direct lightning stroke are presented and discussed: (1) two …

Numerical modelling for EM-Fields and biosystems interactions

In this paper the electromagnetic fields related to the current sources in the human brain are investigated by means of the quasi-stationary approximation. The knowledge of these fields are of great interest to understand the human brain activity regions. By considering the current density produced by neural activity and because no current could ow out of the skull, the numerical model describing the problem can be fully defined. The current sources are simulated as current dipoles into an homogeneous sphere proceeding in the computation by solving the Poissons equation with Neumann boundary conditions. Numerical results relating to a spherical head representation are proposed by considerin…

An Advanced Numerical Model in Solving Thin-Wire Integral Equations by Using Semi-Orthogonal Compactly Supported Spline Wavelets

Abstract—In this paper, the semi-orthogonal compactly sup- ported spline wavelets are used as basis functions for the efficient solution of the thin-wire electric field integral equation (EFIE) in frequency domain. The method of moments (MoM) is used via the Galerkin procedure. Conventional MoM directly applied to the EFIE, leads to dense matrix which often becomes computation- ally intractable when large-scale problems are approached. To overcome these difficulties, wavelets can be used as a basis set so obtaining the generation of a sparse matrix; this is due to the local supports and the vanishing moments properties of the wavelets. In the paper, this technique is applied to analyze elec…

A MESHLESS PARTICLE FORMULATION FOR ELECTROMGNETIC PROBLEMS

Numerical modelling of electromagnetic sources by integral formulation

Analysis of electromagnetic (EM) transients can be carried out by employing a eld approach in frequency domain, based on an appropriate integral equation. This approach is a powerful method for the analysis of EM antennas and scatterers. Recent work by the authors in modeling electromagnetic scattering in frequency domain are summarized. Thin-wire electric eld integral equation has been handled and possible application in obtaining sources localization information are discussed. Moments method (MoM) is used and time domain analysis is also carried out by discrete Fourier transform. Di erent approaches have been considered by using direct MoM formulation. Simulation results obtained both via…

A Meshfree Solver for the MEG Forward Problem

Noninvasive estimation of brain activity via magnetoencephalography (MEG) involves an inverse problem whose solution requires an accurate and fast forward solver. To this end, we propose the Method of Fundamental Solutions (MFS) as a meshfree alternative to the Boundary Element Method (BEM). The solution of the MEG forward problem is obtained, via the Method of Particular Solutions (MPS), by numerically solving a boundary value problem for the electric scalar potential, derived from the quasi-stationary approximation of Maxwell’s equations. The magnetic field is then computed by the Biot-Savart law. Numerical experiments have been carried out in a realistic single-shell head geometry. The p…

Analysis of the Allee threshold via moving least square approximation

Cooperation is a common behavior between the members of predators species, because it can improve theirs skill in hunt, especially in endangered eco-systems. This behavior it is well known to induce the Strong Allee effect, that can induce the extinction when the initial populations’ is under a critical density called ”Allee threshold ”. Here we investigate the impact of the pack hunting in a predator-prey system in which the predator suffers of an infectious disease with frequency and vertical transmission. The result is a three dimensional system with the predators population divided into susceptible and infected individuals. Studying the system dynamics a scenario was identified in which…

Iterative moment method for electromagnetic transients in grounding systems on CRAY T3D

In this paper the parallel aspects of an electromagnetic model for transients in grounding systems based on an iterative scheme are investigated in a multiprocessor environment. A coarse and fine grain parallel solutions have been developed on the CRAY T3D, housed at CINECA, equipped with 64 processors working in space sharing modality. The performances of the two parallel approaches implemented according to the work sharing parallel paradigm have been evaluated for different problem sizes employing variable number of processors.

A Mesh-free Particle Method for Transient Full-wave Simulation

A mesh-free particle method is presented for electromagnetic (EM) transient simulation. The basic idea is to obtain numerical solutions for the partial differential equations describing the EM problem in time domain, by using a set of particles, considered as spatial interpolation points of the field variables, arbitrarily placed in the problem domain and by avoiding the use of a regular mesh. Irregular problems geometry with diffused non-homogeneous media can be modeled only with an initial set of arbitrarily distributed particles. The time dependence is accounted for with an explicit finite difference scheme. Moreover the particle discretization can be improved during the process time ste…

An advanced numerical model for human brain activity investigation

Corrective meshless particle formulations for time domain Maxwell's equations

AbstractIn this paper a meshless approximation of electromagnetic (EM) field functions and relative differential operators based on particle formulation is proposed. The idea is to obtain numerical solutions for EM problems by passing up the mesh generation usually required to compute derivatives, and by employing a set of particles arbitrarily placed in the problem domain. The meshless Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics method has been reformulated for solving the time domain Maxwell's curl equations. The consistency of the discretized model is investigated and improvements in the approximation are obtained by modifying the numerical process. Corrective algorithms preserving meshless consiste…

An improved smoothed particle electromagnetics method in 3D time domain simulations

In this paper, an enhanced variant of the meshless smoothed particle electromagnetics (SPEM) method is performed in order to solve PDEs in time domain describing 3D transient electromagnetic phenomena. The method appears to be very efficient in approximating spatial derivatives in the numerical treatment of Maxwell's curl equations. In many cases, very often, accuracy degradation, due to a lack of particle consistency, severely limits the usefulness of this approach. A numerical corrective strategy, which allows to restore the SPEM consistency, without any modification of the smoothing kernel function and its derivatives, is presented. The method allows to restore the same order of consiste…

On the use of a meshless solver for PDEs governing electromagnetic transients

In this paper some key elements of the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics methodology suitably reformulated for analyzing electromagnetic transients are investigated. The attention is focused on the interpolating smoothing kernel function which strongly influences the computational results. Some issues are provided by adopting the polynomial reproducing conditions. Validation tests involving Gaussian and cubic B-spline smoothing kernel functions in one and two dimensions are reported.

An augmented MFS approach for brain activity reconstruction

Abstract Weak electrical currents in the brain flow as a consequence of acquisition, processing and transmission of information by neurons, giving rise to electric and magnetic fields, which can be modeled by the quasi-stationary approximation of Maxwell’s equations. Electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG) techniques allow for reconstructing the cerebral electrical currents and thus investigating the neuronal activity in the human brain in a non-invasive way. This is a typical electromagnetic inverse problem which can be addressed in two stages. In the first one a physical and geometrical representation of the head is used to find the relation between a given source mo…

Modelli numerici meshfree per l’analisi di problemi elettromagnetici.

Lightning-current distribution in MV grids interconnected earthing systems

The paper presents first investigations results on the effects of lightning stroke on medium voltage (MV) installations' earthing systems, connected together with the metal shields of the MV distribution grid cables. The study enables to evaluate the distribution of the lightning current among interconnected earth electrodes in order to assess if the interconnection, usually done for reducing earth potential rise during an earth fault, can give place to dangerous situations far from the installation hit by the lightning stroke. Two case studies of direct lightning stroke are presented and discussed: two interconnected MV substations of the MV grid; a high voltage/medium voltage (HV/MV) stat…

A Meshless Method for Image Reconstruction

A multi-sphere particle numerical model for non-invasive investigations of neuronal human brain activity

In this paper, a multi-sphere particle method is built- up in order to estimate the solution of the Poisson's equation with Neumann boundary conditions describing the neuronal human brain activity. The partial difierential equations governing the relationships between neural current sources and the data produced by neuroimaging technique, are able to compute the scalp potential and magnetic fleld distributions generated by the neural activity. A numerical approach is proposed with current dipoles as current sources and going on in the computation by avoiding the mesh construction. The current dipoles are into an homogeneous spherical domain modeling the head and the computational approach i…

Consistency Restoring in SPH for Trigonometric Functions Approximation

Some numerical modelings beyond the mesh

In recent years meshless methods have gained much attention in several application areas of science. These methods benefit of savings due to the elimination of meshing process and are suite to handle changes in the geometry of the domain of interest. Further advantages come from the ease of implementation, which makes computer codes very flexible. We present some numerical experiences lying in the meshless framework dealing with domain and boundary-type methods.

Improved fast Gauss transform for meshfree electromagnetic transients simulations

Abstract In this paper improved fast summations are introduced to enhance a meshfree solver for the evolution of the electromagnetic fields over time. The original method discretizes the time-domain Maxwell’s curl equations via Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics requiring many summations on the first derivatives of the kernel function and field vectors at each time step. The improved fast Gauss transform is properly adopted picking up the computational cost and the memory requirement at an acceptable level preserving the accuracy of the computation. Numerical simulations in two-dimensional domains are discussed giving evidence of improvements in the computation compared to the standard formula…

UN SOLUTORE MESHFREE PER M/EEG

A WAVELET OPERATOR ON THE INTERVAL IN SOLVING MAXWELL'S EQUATIONS

In this paper, a differential wavelet-based operator defined on an interval is presented and used in evaluating the electromagnetic field described by Maxwell's curl equations, in time domain. The wavelet operator has been generated by using Daubechies wavelets with boundary functions. A spatial differential scheme has been performed and it has been applied in studying electromagnetic phenomena in a lossless medium. The proposed approach has been successfully tested on a bounded axial-symmetric cylindrical domain.

Towards an efficient meshfree solver

In this paper we focus on the enhancement in accuracy approximating a function and its derivatives via smoothed particle hydrodynamics. We discuss about improvements in the solution by reformulating the original method by means of the Taylor series expansion and by projecting with the kernel function and its derivatives. The accuracy of a function and its derivatives, up to a fixed order, can be simultaneously improved by assuming them as unknowns of a linear system. The improved formulation has been assessed with gridded and scattered data points distribution and the convergence has been analyzed referring to a case study in a 2D domain.

Beyond the mesh handling Maxwell's curl equations with an unconditionally leapfrog stable scheme

Numerical solution of equations governing time domain simulations in computational electromagnetics, is usually based on grid methods in space and on explicit schemes for the time evolution. A predefined grid in the problem domain and a stability step size restriction must be accepted. Evidence is given that efforts need for overcoming these heavy constraints. Recently, the authors developed a meshless method to avoid the connective laws among the points scattered in the problem domain. Despite the good spatial properties, the numerical explicit integration used in the original formulation of the method provides,also in a meshless context, spatial and time discretization strictly interleave…

Un metodo numerico incodizionatamente stabile mesh-free per l'analisi elettromagnetica

STIMA DEL POTENZIALE ELETTRICO IN tDCS CON APPROCCIO MESHLESS INNOVATIVO

Transcranial DC stimulation (transcranial Direct Current Stimulation, tDCS) is a non-invasive technique aimed at modifying neuronal activity for the purpose therapeutic and / or for the improvement of mental performance. A continuous current of entity modest (below the threshold of perception) is injected into the brain via electrodes placed on the scalp surface to produce changes in long-term cortical activity. Despite the increasing use of this and other similar techniques, and the relevant ones applications - for example in the field of neuropsychological rehabilitation - their impact on neuronal activity is not yet fully known, mainly due to the difficulty of predict the spatial distrib…

Energy Storage by using HVDC Power Cables

The development of HVDC (high voltage direct current) systems closely follow the growth of global energy requirements. In particular, HVDC cables are conveniently used for the interconnection of geographical areas which need a low environmental impact and/or when submarines interconnections have to be built up. The paper investigates the stored energy value in an HVDC cable during its normal duty and if it is possible to take advantage of this energy when the cable is disconnected for some reason. In particular, the idea is to store the cable energy, which would be dissipated uselessly, by using a dedicated system and then reuse it when favorable conditions hold, e.g a convenient economic s…

Some Numerical Remarks on a Meshless Approximation Method

In this paper we consider sources of enhancement for the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics method in approximating a function and its derivatives. It is well known that the standard formulation is usually poor when scattered data distribution is considered or when the approximation near the boundary occurs. In this paper studies on the accuracy are provided and assessed with gridded and scattered data distribution in the problem domain. The improvements of the method are addressed and supporting numerical experiments are included.

Smoothed Particle Interpolation for electromagnetic simulations

A meshless approach solving time domain Maxwell’s equations

On basins of attraction for a predator-prey model via meshless approximation

Abstract. In this work an epidemiological predator-prey model is studied. It analyzes the spread of an infectious disease with frequency-dependent and vertical transmission within the predator population. In particular we consider social predators, i.e. they cooperate in groups to hunt. The result is a three-dimensional system in which the predator population is divided into susceptible and infected individuals. Studying the dynamical system and bifurcation diagrams, a scenario was identified in which the model shows multistability but the domain of attraction of one equilibrium point can be so small that it is almost the point itself. From a biological point of view it is important to anal…

A numerical meshless particle method in solving the magnetoencephalography forward problem

In this paper, a numerical meshless particle method is presented in order to solve the magnetoencephalography forward problem for analyzing the complex activation patterns in the human brain. The forward problem is devoted to compute the scalp potential and magnetic field distribution generated by a set of current sources representing the neural activity, and in this paper, it has been approached by means of the smoothed particle hydrodynamics method suitably handled. The Poisson equation generated by the quasi-stationary Maxwell's curl equations, by assuming Neumann boundary conditions has been considered, and the current sources have been simulated by current dipoles. The adopted meshless…

Un modello dinamico per la simulazione della ionizzazione di terreni non omogenei in presenza di elettrodi disperdenti elevate correnti impulsive

La caratterizzazione elettromagnetica del comportamento dinamico di elettrodi interrati, disperdenti elevate correnti impulsive, costituisce uno degli aspetti primari nella progettazione di un sistema di protezione dalle fulminazioni atmosferiche (LPS). D’altra parte, elevate correnti impulsive possono causare l’insorgere di fenomeni di ionizzazione del terreno, nelle zone prossime agli elettrodi interrati, nei punti in cui il campo elettrico totale supera il valore critico. Modelli teorici e misure sperimentali correlano l’insorgere di variazioni di conducibilità del terreno in prossimità di elettrodi interrati interessati da elevate correnti impulsive al fenomeno della ionizzazione del te…

SOIL IONIZATION DUE TO HIGH PULSE TRANSIENT CURRENTS LEAKED BY EARTH ELECTRODES

This paper proposes a numerical model of the soil ionization phenomena that can occur when earth electrodes are injected by high pulse transient currents, as the one associated with a direct lightning stroke. Based on finite difference time domain numerical scheme, this model ascribes the electrical breakdown in the soil to the process of discharge in the air. In fact, as soon as the local electric field overcomes the electrical strength, the air in the voids trapped among soil particles is ionized, and the current is conducted by ionized plasma paths locally grown. The dimension of these ionized air channels is strictly dependent upon the local temperature. Thus, a local heat balance is en…

COMPORTAMENTO IN TRANSITORIO DI IMPIANTI DI TERRA INTERCONNESSI SOGGETTI A FULMINAZIONE ATMOSFERICA

L’attività di ricerca è orientata all’analisi del comportamento in transitorio, durante una eventuale condizione di fulminazione atmosferica diretta e/o indiretta, di impianti di terra interconnessi in sistemi elettrici in media tensione (MT). Usualmente l’interconnessione è realizzata attraverso la guaina metallica dei cavi in MT o mediante l’impiego di corde di rame nudo interrate parallelamente al percorso dei cavi stessi. Tale interconnessione, impiegata durante il normale servizio elettrico per limitare l’ampiezza dell’eventuale corrente di guasto a terra, contribuisce anche a modificare la distribuzione della corrente di fulmine in caso di fulminazione diretta o indiretta dell’impiant…

A numerical meshless particle method in solving the magnetoencephalography forward problem

In this paper, a numerical meshless particle method is presented in order to solve the magnetoencephalography forward problem for analyzing the complex activation patterns in the human brain. The forward problem is devoted to compute the scalp potential and magnetic field distribution generated by a set of current sources representing the neural activity, and in this paper, it has been approached by means of the smoothed particle hydrodynamics method suitably handled. The Poisson equation generated by the quasi-stationary Maxwell’s curl equations, by assuming Neumann boundary conditions has been considered, and the current sources have been simulated by current dipoles. The adopted meshless…

Smoothed Particle ElectroMagnetics: A mesh-free solver for transients

AbstractIn this paper an advanced mesh-free particle method for electromagnetic transient analysis, is presented. The aim is to obtain efficient simulations by avoiding the use of a mesh such as in the most popular grid-based numerical methods. The basic idea is to obtain numerical solutions for partial differential equations describing the electromagnetic problem by using a set of particles arbitrarily placed in the problem domain. The mesh-free smoothed particle hydrodynamics method has been adopted to obtain numerical solution of time domain Maxwell's curl equations. An explicit finite difference scheme has been employed for time integration. Details about the numerical treatment of elec…

Simulazione elettromagnetica tramite il metodo FDTD: implementazione in ambiente computazionale avanzato

Analisi wavelet per immagini di risonanza magnetica affette da rumore

Un metodo meshfree particellare per la risoluzione delle equazioni di Maxwell: sviluppo di un codice in ambiente GRID

An Improved Solver for the M/EEG Forward Problem

Noninvasive investigation of the brain activity via electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG) involves a typical inverse problem whose solution process requires an accurate and fast forward solver. We propose the Method of Fundamental Solutions (MFS) as a truly meshfree alternative to the Boundary Element Method (BEM) for solving the M/EEG forward problem. The solution of the forward problem is obtained, via the Method of Particular Solutions (MPS), by numerically solving a set of coupled boundary value problems for the 3D Laplace equation. Numerical accuracy and computational load are investigated for spherical geometries and comparisons with a state-of-the-art BEM solv…

APPROCCIO "MESHFREE" PARTICELLARE PER L'ANALISI ELETTROMAGNETICA IN DOMINI TRIDIMENSIONALI

An Advanced Numerical Method for Recovering Image Velocity Vectors Field

Wavelet-based efficient simulation of electromagnetic transients in a lightning protection system

In this paper, a wavelet-based efficient simulation of electromagnetic transients in a lightning protection systems (LPS) is presented. The analysis of electromagnetic transients is carried out by employing the thin-wire electric field integral equation in frequency domain. In order to easily handle the boundary conditions of the integral equation, semiorthogonal compactly supported spline wavelets, constructed for the bounded interval [0,1], have been taken into account in expanding the unknown longitudinal currents. The integral equation is then solved by means of the Galerkin method. As a preprocessing stage, a discrete wavelet transform is used in order to efficiently compress the Fouri…

A CUDA-based implementation of an improved SPH method on GPU

We present a CUDA-based parallel implementation on GPU architecture of a modified version of the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method. This modified formulation exploits a strategy based on the Taylor series expansion, which simultaneously improves the approximation of a function and its derivatives with respect to the standard formulation. The improvement in accuracy comes at the cost of an additional computational effort. The computational demand becomes increasingly crucial as problem size increases but can be addressed by employing fast summations in a parallel computational scheme. The experimental analysis showed that our parallel implementation significantly reduces the runti…

A meshfree approach for brain activity source modeling

Weak electrical currents in the brain flow as a consequence of acquisition, processing and transmission of information by neurons, giving raise to electric and magnetic fields, which are representable by means of quasi-stationary approximation of the Maxwell’s equations. Measurements of electric scalar potential differences at the scalp and magnetic fields near the head constitute the input data for, respectively, electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencepharography (MEG), which allow for reconstructing the cerebral electrical currents and thus investigating the neuronal activity in the human brain in a non-invasive way. This is a typical erectromagnetic inverse problem, since measuremen…

An improved Smoothed Particle ElectroMagnetics method in 3D time domain simulations

In this paper, an enhanced variant of the meshless smoothed particle electromagnetics (SPEM) method is performed in order to solve PDEs in time domain describing 3D transient electromagnetic phenomena. The method appears to be very efficient in approximating spatial derivatives in the numerical treatment of Maxwell's curl equations. In many cases, very often, accuracy degradation, due to a lack of particle consistency, severely limits the usefulness of this approach. A numerical corrective strategy, which allows to restore the SPEM consistency, without any modification of the smoothing kernel function and its derivatives, is presented. The method allows to restore the same order of consiste…

IMAGING DI CANALI SOTTILI PER APPLICAZIONI BIO-MEDICALI

Exploiting Numerical Behaviors in SPH.

Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics is a meshless particle method able to evaluate unknown field functions and relative differential operators. This evaluation is done by performing an integral representation based on a suitable smoothing kernel function which, in the discrete formulation, involves a set of particles scattered in the problem domain. Two fundamental aspects strongly characterizing the development of the method are the smoothing kernel function and the particle distribution. Their choice could lead to the so-called particle inconsistency problem causing a loose of accuracy in the approximation; several corrective strategies can be adopted to overcome this problem. This paper focu…

A marching-on in time meshless kernel based solver for full-wave electromagnetic simulation

A meshless particle method based on an unconditionally stable time domain numerical scheme, oriented to electromagnetic transient simulations, is presented. The proposed scheme improves the smoothed particle electromagnetics method, already developed by the authors. The time stepping is approached by using the alternating directions implicit finite difference scheme, in a leapfrog way. The proposed formulation is used in order to efficiently overcome the stability relation constraint of explicit schemes. In fact, due to this constraint, large time steps cannot be used with small space steps and vice-versa. The same stability relation holds when the meshless formulation is applied together w…

Unconditionally stable meshless integration of time-domain Maxwell’s curl equations

Grid based methods coupled with an explicit approach for the evolution in time are traditionally adopted in solving PDEs in computational electromagnetics. The discretization in space with a grid covering the problem domain and a stability step size restriction, must be accepted. Evidence is given that efforts need for overcoming these heavy constraints. The connectivity laws among the points scattered in the problem domain can be avoided by using meshless methods. Among these, the smoothed particle electromagnetics, gives an interesting answer to the problem, overcoming the limit of the grid generation. In the original formulation an explicit integration scheme is used providing, spatial a…

An advanced numerical treatment of EM absorption in human tissue

The numerical computation of local electromagnetic absorption at points within the human tissue is proposed by avoiding the mesh generation in the problem domain. Recently, meshless numerical methods have been introduced as an alter- native computational approach to mesh based methods. This is an important feature to generate competitive procedure able to provide final evaluations for large data amounts in real time. In this paper the smoothed particle hydrodynamics method is considered to compute the electromagnetic absorption. First experiments are performed in two dimension at single frequencies by considering incident TM plane wave on 2D cylinder simulating a simplified model of human t…

An efficient solver for electromagnetic transient simulationi

An algorithm for optical flow computation based on a quasi-interpolant operator

UN SOLUTORE MESHFREE PER EEG/MEG

M/EEG Forward Model Computation Via Source-Adaptive Meshless Solving

Processo di denoising mediante wavelet di segnali dovuti alle scariche parziali

A brief overview on the numerical behavior of an implicit meshless method and an outlook to future challenges

In this paper recent results on a leapfrog ADI meshless formulation are reported and some future challenges are addressed. The method benefits from the elimination of the meshing task from the pre-processing stage in space and it is unconditionally stable in time. Further improvements come from the ease of implementation, which makes computer codes very flexible in contrast to mesh based solver ones. The method requires only nodes at scattered locations and a function and its derivatives are approximated by means of a kernel representation. A perceived obstacle in the implicit formulation is in the second order differentiations which sometimes are eccesively sensitive to the node configurat…

A Smoothed Particle Image Reconstruction method

Many image processing techniques work with scattered data distribution usually employing grid based methods leading to numerical problems. To address this issue, a numerical method avoiding mesh generation can be used. Such a method performs an integral representation by means of a smoothing kernel function and, in the discrete formulation, involves domain particles. In this paper the meshless Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics method is proposed in the Image Reconstruction context and a new computational strategy called Smoothed Particle Image Reconstruction is presented; the new method is based on a scatter approach and several innovative ideas are introduced in order to improve the computat…

IL METODO DELLE SOLUZIONI FONDAMENTALI PER LA SOLUZIONE DEL PROBLEMA DIRETTO M/EEG

The research already started on the mesh-free solution of the M / EEG direct problem has led to the development of a solver based on the method of fundamental solutions (MFS, method of fundamental solutions) able to manage the physical-geometric complexity of realistic models of the head more efficiently than traditional.

Beyond the BEM Solution of the M/EEG Forward Problem: a Meshfree Approach

Properties determining parameters choice in meshless solver for electromagnetic transients

Separatrix reconstruction to identify tipping points in an eco-epidemiological model

Many ecological systems exhibit tipping points such that they suddenly shift from one state to another. These shifts can be devastating from an ecological point of view, and additionally have severe implications for the socio-economic system. They can be caused by overcritical perturbations of the state variables such as external shocks, disease emergence, or species removal. It is therefore important to be able to quantify the tipping points. Here we present a study of the tipping points by considering the basins of attraction of the stable equilibrium points. We address the question of finding the tipping points that lie on the separatrix surface, which partitions the space of system traj…

A Meshless Approach for Electromagnetic Simulation of Metallic Carbon Nanotubes

In this paper, a study on the electromagnetic behaviour of a single wall carbon nanotube model is described. The electrons available for conduction are treated as a thin cylindrical layer fluid and their motion is described by means of classical hydrodynamics equations in linearized form. These equations are solved in time domain using the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics method. The method suitably handled runs on GRID environment.

Impiego di metodi numerici meshfree per l’analisi elettromagnetica

A recurrence-free variant of strassen’s algorithm on hypercube

In this paper a non-recursive Strassen’s matrix multiplication algorithm is presented. This new algorithm is suitable to run on parallel environments. Two computational schemes have been worked out exploiting different parallel approaches on hypercube architecture. A comparative analysis is reported. The experiments have been carried out on an nCUBE-2 supercomputer, housed at CNUCE in Pisa, supporting the Express parallel operating system. © 1995, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

Studi numerici per la magnetoencefalografia

Grid parallel simulations of a meshless method for electromagnetic transients

Un algoritmo innovativo per il calcolo del flusso ottico

Exploring parallel capabilities of an innovative numerical method for recovering image velocity vectors field

In this paper an efficient method devoted to estimate the velocity vectors field is investigated. The method is based on a quasi-interpolant operator and involves a large amount of computation. The operations characterizing the computational scheme are ideal for parallel processing because they are local, regular and repetitive. Therefore, the spatial parallelism of the process is studied to rapidly proceed in the computation on distributed multiprocessor systems. The process has shown to be synchronous, with good task balancing and requiring a small amount of data transfer.

Non-invasive imaging of biological microstructures by VHF waves

Studi sull’accuratezza numerica di un solutore meshfree per l’approssimazione di campi

L’attività di ricerca è stata finalizzata allo studio di metodologie numeriche avanzate senza reticolazioni per l’approssimazione di funzioni e sue derivate. In particolare si sono condotti studi sull’accuratezza e convergenza del metodo Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics riferendosi a campionamenti regolari e non

A 3D Meshless Approach for Transient Electromagnetic PDEs

A full wave three dimensional meshless approach for electromagnetic transient simulations is presented. The smoothed particle hydrodynamic (SPH) method is used by considering the particles as interpolation points, arbitrarily placed in the computational domain. Maxwell’s equations in time domain with the assigned boundary and initial conditions are numerically solved by means of the proposed method. The computational tool is assessed and, for the first time, a 3D test problem is simulated in order to validate the proposed approach.

Enhancing the Iterative Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics Method

Motivated by recent research on the iterative approach proposed for the smoothed particle hydrodynamics (ISPH) method, some ideas to improve the process are introduced. The standard procedure is enhanced iterating on the residuals preserving the matrix-free nature of the process. The method is appealing providing reasonable results with disordered data distribution too and no kernel variations are needed in the approximation. This work moves forward with a novel formulation requiring a lower number of iterations to reach a desired accuracy. The computational procedure is described and some results are introduced to appreciate the proposed formulation.

A Meshfree Boundary Method for M/EEG Forward Computations

A numerical method for imaging of biological microstructures by VHF waves

Imaging techniques give a fundamental support to medical diagnostics during the pathology discovery as well as for the characterization of bio-medical structures. The imaging methods involve electromagnetic waves in a frequency range that spans from some Hz to GHz and over. Most of these methods involve ionizing waves and scanning of a large human body area even if only a focused inspection is needed. In this paper, a numerical method to evaluate the shape of microstructures for application in the medical field, with a very low invasiveness for the human body, is proposed. In particular, the tooth’s root canal is considered. In fact, this is one of the hot topics in the endodontic procedure…