HYBRID IPO-BI-FEM FOR THE ANALYSIS OF 2D LARGE RADOME WITH COMPLEX STRUCTURE

In this article, the iterative physical optics-boundary integral-finite element method (IPO-BI-FEM) is proposed for the analysis of electrically large radomes with complex structures, such as the multilayered tip, the rain erosion protective cap. The flat smooth sections of the radome are modeled using physical optics (PO), and the boundary integral-finite element method (BI-FEM) is adopted to treat the complex structures and their near regions. The fields radiated from the PO currents are coupled into the BI-FEM equation to realize the hybridization. This hybrid method is employed iteratively to account for the mutual interactions among the radome, resulting into IPO-BI-FEM. The present method is more accurate than high frequency method for analyzing radomes with complex structures and more efficient than low-frequency method for electrically large radomes analysis. The validation examples and some numerical results are presented. (C) 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 51: 1348-1353, 2009; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.24332