Investigation of the Effects of Aeroelastic Deformations on the Radar Cross Section of Aircraft

Abstract

The effects of aeroelastic deformations on the radar cross section (RCS) of a T-38 trainer jet and a C-5A transport aircraft are examined and characterized. Realistic representations of structural wing deformations are obtained from a mechanical/computer aided design software package called NASTRAN . NASTRAN is used to evaluate the structural parameters of the aircraft as well as the restraints and loads associated with realistic flight conditions. Geometries for both the non-deformed and deformed airframes are obtained from the NASTRAN models and translated into RCS models. The RCS is analyzed using a numerical modeling code called the Radar Cross Section - Basic Scattering Code, version 2 which was developed at the Ohio State University and is based on the uniform geometric theory of diffraction. The code is used to analyze the effects of aeroelastic deformations on the RCS of the aircraft by comparing the computed RCS representing the deformed airframe to that of the non-deformed airframe and characterizing the differences between them.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 1991
Accession Number
ADA243889

Entities

People

  • Samuel D. Mckenzie

Organizations

  • Air Force Institute of Technology

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aircrafts
  • Airframes
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics
  • Computer-Aided Design
  • Computers
  • Diffraction
  • Electromagnetic Fields
  • Electromagnetic Radiation
  • Electromagnetic Scattering
  • Finite Element Analysis
  • Geometry
  • Operating Systems
  • Radar Cross Sections
  • Scattering
  • Three Dimensional
  • Transport Aircraft
  • Two Dimensional

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Aerospace Engineering
  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • Structural Health Monitoring of Composite Structures.