Design of Airborne Radome Using Novel Temperature Dependent Electromagnetic Modeling

Abstract

In this paper, a novel temperature dependent electromagnetic modeling for the design of airborne radome is presented. A smooth spatial temperature distribution on the radome surface is modeled using a piecewise cubic hermite interpolating polynomial as well as piecewise linear interpolation. The temperature gradient across the radome wall is modeled using an inhomogeneous planar layer. The performance of a radome is computed using the 3D ray tracing method in conjunction with aperture integration. A unique radome wall configuration is obtained for each ray for the accurate representation of a hot radome. A streamlined radome designed using the proposed model shows a significant performance improvement over the radome designed at the average temperature. The designed radome has the minimum insertion loss of 0.015 dB and the maximum boresight error of 1.8 mrad. The proposed method can be easily used with the experimentally obtained temperature distribution to predict the changes in radome performance in changing hypersonic environment.

Design of FSS Based Radome Wall for Airborne Radar Application

“…Quartz is a very low loss but higher in cost than polyethylene, it has the content of silica which is lower in dielectric constant and small loss tangent. Kevlar has higher loss tangent and applicable in high strength application [2], [3], [6].…”

“…In sandwich structures-FSS commonly immerse in the core layer of substrate. Another approach is to design FSS based radome is thick layers of FSS can be separated by a core layer [3], [7].…”

“…A radome is made up of a material that minimally degrades the electrical performance of the enclosed antenna and effectively transparent to the radio frequency. Today, radomes find a wide range of applications in ground, maritime, vehicular, aircraft, airborne and missile systems [2], [3].…”