Computational model for electromagnetic interaction of conformal antennas and aircraft structure

Computational model for electromagnetic interaction of conformal antennas and aircraft structure

Schippers, H.
Verpoorte, J.
Vos, G.

National Aerospace Laboratory NLR

2001-05-22

The aim of this paper is to describe a computational model for assessment of electromagnetic interaction of conformal antennas with the aircraft structure. The conformal array antennas are assumed to be flush-mounted on the surface of an aircraft. The model assumes a receiving conformal antenna, which is illuminated by a plane wave. The electromagnetic field that is scattered by the aircraft (itself) on the antenna is taken into account. The mathematical modeling of the electromagnetic field is divided into two parts. The first part is concerned with the modeling of the scattered field in the region outside the aircraft, the second part is related to the modeling of the electromagnetic properties of the array elements. The computational model is applied to a conformal array antenna (consisting of 16 microstrip patch antennas) on a generic aircraft and a generic phased array antenna on a pod of a fighter aircraft. The numerical resuhs of the generic aircraft are compared with measurements that have been carried out on NLR' s Antenna Test Range. Paper presented at the 2nd European Workshop on Conformal Antennas, 24-25 April 2001, The Hague, The Netherlands.

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:f7a302c3-63be-4519-bd29-74db00bff902

Nationaal Lucht- en Ruimtevaartlaboratorium

Campus only

NLR Technical Publication TP 2001-208

Aerospace Engineering Reports

report

(c) 2001 National Aerospace Laboratory NLR