Modeling the Radar Signature of Thin Metallic Objects with the AFDTD Software
Abstract
In the current AFDTD software implementation, accurate modeling and simulation of scattering from thin metallic objects (such as flat plates) requires a much finer mesh than for non-metallic objects. This is due to the less-than-rigorous implementation of the physical boundary conditions at the interface between the object and the medium. We describe an improvement to the AFDTD algorithm that properly implements the physical boundary conditions at the interface for metallic objects with planar surfaces that lie on the Cartesian coordinate planes. We simulate the far-field scattering caused by a thin metal rectangular plate, as well as a calibration trihedral, run over incident angles between 0 and 90 from 300 MHz to 3 GHz. To demonstrate the faster convergence with respect to cell size, each set of simulations is run with cell sizes of 0.01, 0.005, and 0.0025 m. These results are compared with a Method of Moments solution provided by the FEKO electromagnetic (EM) modeling software to gauge the accuracy of the solution. Through this comparison, we show that while both versions of the AFDTD code can deliver accurate results for non-grazing angles, the newly adapted version does so with a coarser grid over the entire angle range and all polarization combinations.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2014
- Accession Number
- ADA608976
Entities
People
- Jason Cornelius
- Traian V. Dogaru
Organizations
- United States Army Research Laboratory