2. Different types of simulation

2.1 Choice of simulation method

As we saw above, a system is often highly multi-scale; if a numerical analysis method is suitable for a given scale, there's nothing to say that it's the best candidate for a higher scale. In this section, we'll take a look at a given scale and see what type of analysis tool can be used, with a quick overview of the main numerical methods classically employed.

Numerical simulation only really took off with the advent of today's computers and ever more powerful computing resources (processor speed, RAM, parallelism, etc.). However, the first numerical schemes for solving Maxwell's equations are over 50 years old, and since then they have continued to evolve and diversify.

In order to describe the different...