Numerical Computation of Electric and Magnetic Fields

For well over a decade, the numerical approach to field computation has been gaining progressively greater importance. Analytical methods of field compu- tation are, at best, unable to accommodate the very wide variety of configura- tions in which fields must be computed. On the other hand, numerical methods can accommodate many practical configurations that analytical methods cannot. With the advent of high-speed digital computers, numerical field computations have finally become practical. However, in order to implement numerical methods of field computation, we need algorithms, numerical methods, and mathematical tools that are largely quite different from those that have been traditionally used with analytical methods. Many of these algorithms have, in fact, been presented in the large number of papers that have been published on this subject in the last two decades. And to some of those who are already experienced in the art of numerical field computations, these papers, in addition to their own original work, are enough to give them the knowledge that they need to perform practical numerical field computations.