Large-Domain Hybrid Moment Method-Physical Optics Techniques for Efficient and Accurate Electromagnetic Modeling of Cars and Aircraft over a Wide Range of Frequencies

University Of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, North Dartmouth MA

Investigators

Abstract

0115756 Notaros The central goal of the proposed research is the development of the methodology and necessary knowledge for electromagnetic modeling of cars and aircraft over a very wide range of radio and microwave frequencies. Analysis of vehicles as electromagnetic structures (antennas and scatterers) and parts of wireless communication and radar systems is, by all means, one of the most challenging and practically important problems of applied electro-magnetics and one of the mainstream tasks with highest preference, today and in the future, of the computational electromagnetics (CEM) community. A new unified general, highly efficient and accurate, hybrid large-domain (higher-order expansion) current-based method will be developed for analysis of electrically small, medium, and very large 3D electromagnetic structures consisting of metallic and dielectric parts of arbitrary shapes. Theoretical foundation of the method is a system of coupled surface integral equations for equivalent surface electric and magnetic currents. The system will be solved by the method of moments (MoM) which will be hybridized with high-frequency asymptotic techniques based on the physical optics (PO). This hybridization will provide a smooth transition between low and high frequency applications. Within the new MoM-PO method, all the surfaces in the system (metallic and dielectric surfaces, in both the MoM- and PO-regions) will be approximated by electrically relatively large bilinear quadrilateral surface elements (large domains) with higher-order polynomial vector expansions for currents. Wires will also be incorporated, in the MoM-regions. Various corrections in the PO-regions will be introduced, including an iterative improvement of the interaction between the MoM- and PO-regions. Most importantly, the memory requirements and computation time associated with the unknowns in the PO-regions can be made extremely low, which results in an enormous overall efficiency of the hybrid solution. As compared with the existing CEM methods, the proposed method will have a unique feature of efficient, accurate, and reliable electromagnetic modeling of cars and aircraft in a wide range of frequencies on small computing platforms (such as desktop and laptop PC's). An extensive new knowledge will be developed and systematized on the methodology of electromagnetic modeling of cars and aircraft from practically dc to high-frequency applications. Experimental validation of the new MoM-PO technique will be performed by measurements in the new UMass Dartmouth ATMC (Advanced Technology and Manufacturing Center) Antenna and Wireless Laboratory.