An improved approximation for the determination of the average RCS of cylinders and flat plates and for the directivity of broadside arrays

An integral commonly occurring in analyses associated with RCS calculations and directivity calculations for uniform arrays is re-examined. Typically, such integrals are evaluated either numerically (a tedious business) or approximately (using asymptotic methods for large arguments). It is shown here that by incorporating only the next higher-order term in the usual asymptotic development for such integrals, it is possible to secure a significant improvement in integral-estimation accuracy, at very little increase in computational effort.