FDTD analysis of ground-penetrating radar antennas with shields and absorbers

Abstract

One of the most critical hardware components of a ground-penetrating radar (GPR) is the antenna system. Important parameters of antennas, such as antenna bandwidth, radiation waveform and cross coupling determine the GPR system performance. The modified TEM horn antenna with distributed resistor load is presented in this paper, and the radiation properties of the antenna with the shields and absorbers are studied through the three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) scheme. Simulations show that the direct signal coupled from the transmitter is decreased by means of the shields and absorbers. Therefore, using the antenna in the GPR system can improve the signal-to-clutter ratio and the dynamic range of the system.

References

1. Daniels D J Gunton D J Scott H F Introduction to subsurface radarProceedings of IEE 1988 135(4)278320
2. Ge D B Yan Y B The finite difference timedomain method for electromagnetic waveXi'anXidian University Press 2002 (in Chinese)
3. Kunz K S Luebbers R J The finite difference timedomain method for electromagneticBocaRatonCRC Press1993
4. Bourgeois J M Smith G S A fully three-dimensional simulationof a ground-penetrating radar: FDTD theory compared with experimentIEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing 1996 34(1)3644
5. Zhan Y Liang C H Fang G Y et al.Simulation of bow-tie antennas above ground andits applications, Chinese Journal of Radio Science 2000 15(2)134138 (in Chinese)
6. Yan X R Jin Y S Luo C M Analysis of wide-band properties and efficiency for dipoleantennas with resistive and capacitive loadingsChinese Journal of Radio Science 2000 15(2)169173 (in Chinese)
7. Zhou W H He J G Zhou D M Optimized design of a new kind of GPR planar antennaChinese Journal of Radio Science 2004 19(3)371373 (in Chinese)
8. Lestari A A Yarovoy A G Ligthart L P Improvement of bow-tie antennas for pulse radiationIEEE Antennas and Propagation Society InternationalSymposium 2002 4566569
9. Lee K-H Venkatarayalu N V Chen C-C Numerical modeling development for characterizing complexGPR problemsSPIE 2002 4758652656
10. Lacko P R Franck C C Johnson M et al.Archimedean-spiral and log-spiral antenna comparisonSPIE 2002 4742230236
11. Liu L Y Su Y Liu K K et al.Radiation characteristics of GPR antenna throughFDTD methodJournal of Microwave 2005 219195 (in Chinese)
12. Maloney J G Shlager K L Smith G S A simple FDTD model for transient excitation of antennasby transmission linesIEEE Transactionson Antennas and Propagation 1994 42(2)289292
13. Gürel Levent O∧guz U Simulations of ground-penetratingradars over lossy and heterogeneous groundsIEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing 2001 39(6)11901197
14. Berenger J P Aperfectly matched layer for the absorption of electromagnetic wavesJournal of Computational Physics 1994 114(2)185200
15. Fang J Y Wu Z H Generalized perfectly matchedlayer for the absorption of propagating and evanescent waves in losslessand lossy mediaIEEE Transactions on MicrowaveTheory Techniques 1996 44(12)22162222