
Meep – Free simulation software to model electromagnetic systems - un_publishable
http://ab-initio.mit.edu/wiki/index.php/Meep
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aaronsnoswell
I've got the same question as johnm1019 - I've used FEM for mechanical stress
analysis before, but never for electromagnetic stuff - what would the
applications of this software be?

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un_publishable
The primary focus of Meep is simulating the interaction of light with Photonic
Crystals (periodic materials that control light based on both their shape and
composition).

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photonic_crystal](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photonic_crystal)

[http://ab-initio.mit.edu/wiki/index.php/Meep_Tutorial/Band_d...](http://ab-
initio.mit.edu/wiki/index.php/Meep_Tutorial/Band_diagram%2C_resonant_modes%2C_and_transmission_in_a_holey_waveguide)

You may have heard of optical metamaterials (aka "invisibility cloaks"). They
are sometimes made with photonic crystals, but photonic crystals aren't always
considered metamaterials. Butterfly wing coloring is a good example.

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analog31
This is a cool example of solving a problem by developing a general purpose
tool, then programming the tool to solve the specialized problem. It's cool
for a couple of reasons. First, many aspects of the tool's behavior can be
confirmed at the general purpose level, i.e., does it behave according to the
expected laws of electromagnetism. Second, it provides the entire community
with something useful.

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johnm1019
So could this (would this?) be used to simulate antenna design?

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davorak
You could use it to do that, though my non-expert understanding is that FEM
will beat out FDTD for antenna design on many occasions.

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nikitabu
It depends on the application. FEM software like COMSOL and CST Studio is
typically used for simulating individual antennas. FDTD software like
Lumerical is more popular for simulating metamaterials, which are basically
large periodic arrays of sub-wavelength antennas.

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madengr
FEM is typically frequency domain, hence it's good for structures with high Q
such as cavity filters, where you know the resonance a-prior. The time domain
methods are nicer for transmission lines and antennas since the whole response
can be computed at once.

CST has many solvers built it, not just FEM; the time domain is the most
popular.

