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Transactions on Engineering and Computing Sciences - Vol. 11, No. 5
Publication Date: October 25, 2023
DOI:10.14738/tecs.115.15656.
Kim, Y. M. (2023). A Study on the Eigen Properties of the Coaxial Waveguide of Cylindrical Form. Transactions on Engineering and
Computing Sciences, 11(5). 69-77.
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
A Study on the Eigen Properties of the Coaxial Waveguide of
Cylindrical Form
Yeong Min Kim
Kyonggi University, Korea
ABSTRACT
In this study, the eigen properties of the coaxial waveguide of cylindrical form is
investigated by using finite element method. The eigenmatrix equation constructed
from the Helmholtz vector equation is too large to derivethe results using a personal
computer. Therefore, the eigen equations are compressed using the Arnoldi
algorithmand after that the results are derived using the Krylov-Schur iteration
method. The similarity transformation matrixused during this process contains the
desired eigenmode pair.The eigenmodes are simultaneously included inthecolumn
matrix components of the transform matrix. These are represented with the pairs
of the electric field and electric potential. The eigenmodes have been divided into
two classes: transverse magnetic modes and transverseelectric modes. As results,
in order to more clearly reveal the characteristics of the eigenmodes, these results
are shown in the figure.
Keyword: coaxial waveguide, similarity transformation, eigenmode, transverse magnetic
mode, transverse electric mode, iteration method.
INTRODUCTION
In the previous paper, it was mentioned that the eigenmodes of a waveguide or the cavity are
related to the properties of the constituent materials and geometric structure [1]. In this paper,
the eigenmode formed in a cavity whose horizontal length of the rectangular is 1.5 times larger
than that in reference [2] has been revealed. The eigenmodes were promoted similar to them
of reference [2] as the order increased. In particular, it was confirmed that as the order of the
eigenmode increases, complex characteristics appear in the feature of electric field. From these
results, it was identified that various types of eigenmodes can be expected simply by changing
the geometric structure. A rectangular cavity is obtained by a cross-section of infinitely
extended waveguide. Therefore, the cavity exhibits the transverse cross-sectional
characteristics of the waveguide. Meanwhile, there are results showing that when the
composition of the waveguide changes, the characteristics of the eigenmode take on various
forms. Photonic crystal waveguides are the most representative example of this result [3][4].
In these studies, various dielectrics are symmetrically inserted into the waveguide, and the
eigenmodes of square or cylindrical photonic crystals are determined. The results obtained
from these studies showed that the eigenmodes varied depending on the relative position and
permittivity of the inserted dielectrics. Based on such studies, various waveguide
characteristics can be expected to be able to obtained through changes in the geometrical
structure and diversity of constituent materials.
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Transactions on Engineering and Computing Sciences (TECS) Vol 11, Issue 5, October - 2023
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
In this study, the eigen properties of the coaxial waveguide is investigated by FEM (Finite
Element Method). So far, many experiments and studies have been reported on coaxial
waveguides. Among those, we have published the studies and results on the eigen properties of
coaxial waveguides at reference [2][3]. In reference [2], the waveguide has a structure similar
to that of this study, but the core region is an empty space without material. The waveguide in
reference [3] is similar to that in this study, but the core and the cladding region wrapping it
have different material properties. In this manuscript, the results of a study on those
waveguides that similar to previous studies in terms of composite materials and geometry is
revealed. This study is intended to reveal the unique characteristics of coaxial waveguides, such
as in these references, and is therefore extending those studies with a review and supplement
from them.
For the calculation of FEM, the space of waveguide cross section is divided into the triangular
mash. Using the edge and node of the mesh element, the vector Helmholtz equation is
reconstructed into the eigen matrix form. The size of the eigen matrix equation is proportional
to the number of meshes made up with edges and nodes.
However, the accuracy of calculation increases as the number of triangular elements making up
the mesh increases. To overcome this contradiction, FEM uses the Arnoldi algorithm to
compress the matrix equations. Afterwards, the Krylov-Schur circulation method is used to find
several eigenmodes with the highest reliability. This method is used in this study to find the
desired eigenmodes and these results are revealed with the schematic representation. As stated
in previous studies, this study omits the theory and formula derivation process for FEM.
Therefore, the description format of this manuscript deviates from the existing order and is
described as follows. This manuscript describes the structure of waveguide for FEM calculation,
the result and discussion of the simulation, and conclusion in order.
THE COAXIAL WAVEGUIDE AND FEM
Figure 1: The coaxial waveguide and the mesh for FEM calculation
Figure 1 is the schematic representation of the transverse cross section of coaxial waveguide.
A waveguide exhibits a homogeneous dielectric constant in the longitudinal direction, and its
value changes in a stepwise manner in the transverse direction. The relative dielectric
constants are assumed to be εin = 10 and εout=1 for the dielectric core and cladding
respectively. Therefore, the generated eigenmodes are expected to be concentrated in the core
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Kim, Y. M. (2023). A Study on the Eigen Properties of the Coaxial Waveguide of Cylindrical Form. Transactions on Engineering and Computing Sciences,
11(5). 69-77.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/tecs.115.15656
region with high dielectric constant according to Snell's law. The mesh is as first set as two- dimensional body centered square unit cell and then refined into a circularly symmetric
structure. Each unit cell is composed of four triangular elements. In this study, cross sectional
space is divided into triangular elements of 15 × 15 × 4 = 900. Here, the number 15 can be
artificially converted to a another set externally to perform FEM calculations. Among the
triangular elements of the mesh, the edges and nodes form the electric field and electric
potential respectively.
In particular, the edges of the triangular elements that make up the mesh must form a consistent
direction with their neighbors, as shown in the figure 2.
Figure 2: The mesh, edges and nodes of triangular elements.
Figure 2(a) is the relationship between edges used previously when performing FEM, and (b)
is the correlation between edges used in the current study. In the case of Figure 2(b), the
rotational direction is 1 → 2 → 3 depending on the color of each edge. The electric field vectors
at each edge obtained in these directions are combined according to reference [1] and marked
at the barycentric point of the triangular element. In Figure 2(b), the barycentric point of each
triangular element is indicated by a black dot. Since figure (b) decomposes the space in more
detail compared to (a), the accuracy of calculations is expected to be further improved. The
edge and the node numbers are in this study is 1204 and 421 respectively. The node points of
the triangular element describe the electric potential which is simultaneously obtained with
the electric field. These values are also used when drawing equipotential contours by
interpolation as shown in (c). The electric potential at a point inside the triangular element can
be obtained by combining the shape function as reference [1].
The numbers of edges and nodes increase as the mesh number increased. The matrix eigen
equation is composited with edges and nodes of the triangular mesh. Therefore, the size of the
matrix eigen equation increase proportional to the number of the mesh. The size of the matrix
eigen equation constructed by adding the number of edges and nodes is 1625 × 1625. In order
to handle the matrix equation of this size, sophisticated algorithm must be used. In this study,
the Arnoldi algorithm is applied to compress this equation so that it can be easily handled. As a
result, the compressed matrix equation has the size of 20 × 20 square matrix. Afterwards, this
square matrix is transformed into a Schur form using the Krylov-Schur iteration method [5]. In
iteration process, the Schur matrix is established by similarity transformation matrices of 20 ×
1625. The eigenmodes of the coaxial waveguide are described by column matrices of the
similarity transforming matrix. Those column matrices contain the contribution from the edges