Antenna In-Situ Performance Analysis for the Hypersonic Flight Vehicle HEXAFLY Employing Measurement Data in a Simulation Model

Abstract

An antenna in-situ performance analysis for the hypersonic flight vehicle HEXAFLY is presented. Two simulation tools and a Compact Antenna Test Range (CATR) measurement facility are employed to obtain the embedded radiation characteristics of two different antenna systems. In a first step, both antenna types are simulated and measured without the impact of the flight vehicle, but in an environment supporting correct functioning, e.g. on a finite conducting ground plane or on top of a vertical conducting stabilizer. A finite element method (FEM) solver is used for this detailed full-wave analysis of antenna structures with fine geometrical and material details. Next, the FEM solver and a method of moments (MoM) solver with multilevel fast multipole algorithm (MLFMA) acceleration are used to obtain the in-situ radiation characteristic of both antennas mounted on the flight vehicle. The FEM solver is now utilized to simulate the complete setup, whereas the MoM solver works with an equivalent radiation source, which is obtained from CATR measurements of isolated antennas. The results confirm the effectiveness of the measurement data based twostep-approach, which helps to overcome the limitations of pure simulations that are often not feasible for off-the-shelf antennas, and allows the overall validation process to be viewed with added confidence.