Maintenance Optimization Model for One kind of Three-Dimensional Radar Antenna Array

Abstract

For three-dimensional radar, maintenance cost is high and maintenance time is difficult to be determined. What's more, model simulation computing is significantly complex. The subject of this paper is a new generation of meter wave active, phased array 3D radar. We put forth a concept that maintenance should be done after dividing into several regions to the asymmetrical distribution planar array antenna. First, a failure model of array elements is built to analyze the influence from the element to antenna. Second, the maintenance optimization model is established. Finally, computer simulations are conducted to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed model. Keywords: three dimensional radar; antenna array; maintenance optimization IntroductionThe three-dimensional radar(3D) has the feature of small bulk, light weight and simple structure.It plays an important role in the modern high tech war. It is of great significance to maintenance the 3D radar. As the main subsystem of the 3D radar, the optimization of array antenna's maintenance gains more attention from military and scientific research units. Generally, the antenna has a large number of array elements, and is designed with a redundant structure, so it can be disposed as a K/n(G) system [1-2]. At present, there exists three main problems in the maintenance optimization of the antenna. The first one is the high maintenance costs and uncertain maintenance time; the second one is that the subject of this paper is a new generation of meter wave active, phased array 3D radar, which is referred to hereafter simply as 3D radar. Compared with conventional radar, it has the asymmetrical distribution of the antenna elements due to the use of amplitude weighting [3]; the last one is the difficult simulation and calculation of the optimal models because of the huge number of array elements. In recent years, there are few reports about how to solve these problems. In literature [4] a condition-based optimal maintenance model is proposed by taking the antenna as a uniform distribution array. This is why we take meter wave active, phased array 3D radar for example. This solves the first problem. However, the other two problems are not considered in literature [4]. To solve these problems, this paper proposes a maintenance optimization model. Firstly, the antenna will be divided into several regions according to the influence rule of the elements to the antenna performance, and then the proposed problems can be solved.In order to study the relationship between elements' failure and antenna performance, some experts introduce the idea of density weighting matrix, and a series of research results are achieved [5][6][7]. These references consider that the effect from element in different positions on the antenna performance is the same. So they mainly study the effect of failure rate on antenna performance. However, the influence of element in different positions on antenna performance is not investigated. In

Development of the algorithm of reliability­centered maintenance of phased array antennas

“…-the probability of failure-free operation of the APAA according to formulas (7), (8); -the mean time to failure of the APAA from equation (9) or formula (10); -the gamma-percentile life of the APAA from equation (11); -the number of corrective replacements of the APAA modules to provide the gamma-percentile life as: (22) In this case, the initial data for the failure rates of electronic elements on which the APAA subarray modules are developed is information from reference books on reliability and results of accelerated tests.…”

“…In recent years, researchers have continued to develop and study models of optimum maintenance for various types of civil and military equipment [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26]. In [15], the model of optimum condition-based maintenance of radio-electronic devices has been proposed.…”

“…The paper [21] presents the formalized mathematical model of the process of adaptive condition-based maintenance that is used in simulation. The model of maintenance optimization for one type of three-dimensional array antennas has been considered in [22]. In [23], the application of the method of group accounting of arguments for forecasting the longevity of radio-electronic systems in the implementation of the condition-based maintenance strategy has been considered.…”

“…The model of optimization of maintenance of a group of phased array antennas of radars in the diffusion nonmonotonic and exponential distributions of time between failures of the array modules has been investigated in [26]. The review of the above works showed [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26] that the researchers from the USA, China, Ukraine and Russia pose and partially solve the theoretical problems of optimum adaptive maintenance and condition-based maintenance of various devices. However, materials on the condition-based maintenance and repair of modern radio-engineering systems have practically not been given.…”

“…In later works, the authors of [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][29][30][31] propose to determine the parameters of optimum maintenance taking into account the specification of reliability indexes of devices based on the results of operation. In doing so, they are mainly limited to the general formulation of the problem and suggestions to use simulation.…”