A versatile integral equation technique for magnetic modelling

Abstract

A requirement currently exists in both mineral exploration and environmental or engineering geophysics for a technique to model the magnetic fields caused by bodies with large to extreme susceptibilities in which both induced and remanent magnetizations are significant. It is well known that modelling such magnetic fields is not amenable to any known approximation. It is a significantly difficult task that requires the solution of a magnetostatic boundary value problem. Analytical solutions to the problem are extremely useful for providing insight but generally of limited application in practical interpretation due to the geometrical complexity of real situations. Available numerical solutions include both volume and surface integral equation formulations. However neither of these are particularly efficient for the purpose. An alternative surface integral equation formulation is presented here which represents the required magnetic field in terms of a double layer over the surface of the body. The technique accommodates both remanent and induced magnetization and is generally applicable to any 3D body in a magnetic environment for which the Green's function is available. The present technique has significant advantages over other integral equation solutions in the geophysical literature. It is particularly economic in terms of the density of the surface discretization and consequently the computational effort. Moreover, it is extremely robust. It is found to yield accurate solutions for the type of thin bodies that cause numerical instability with other surface integral equation approaches.