Analysis of airborne antenna using a FEM–UTD hybrid method

Abstract

In this paper, the near-field vector components were used to combine the FEM method and the uniform-geometrical theory of diffraction (UTD) method for analyzing phased array antenna mounted on an airborne platform. First, HFSS, a set of software based on finite element method (FEM), was utilized to find the near-field vector components of the phased array antennas, and then these vector components were used as the source of the UTD method to get the disturbed radiation pattern. Numerical results show that the hybrid of the two methods not only extends the use of the UTD program, but also effectively solves this type of challenging problems.