A Mesh Refinement Method of Reflector Antennas Using Quadratic Surface Construction Over Each Structure Element

• Published in: IEEE antennas and wireless propagation letters Vol. 13; pp. 1557 - 1560
• Main Authors: Lian, Peiyuan, Duan, Baoyan, Wang, Wei, Xiang, Binbin, Li, Peng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 2014; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Accuracy; Computer simulation; Construction; Coordinates; Discretization; Far-field pattern; Finite element analysis; Finite element method; grid discretization error (GDE); Mathematical analysis; Mathematical models; Optical surface waves; quadratic surface; Reflector antennas; Vectors; Vectors (mathematics)
• ISSN: 1536-1225; 1548-5757
• DOI: 10.1109/LAWP.2014.2344654

Integrated structural-electromagnetic design is one of the current research hotspots in the area of antenna design. In this letter, a mesh refinement method of structure finite elements is developed to produce electromagnetic grids by constructing a quadratic surface over each element. To begin with, the normal vector at each grid node is constructed through the linear combination of normal vectors of the elements around that node. Then, with the help of the constructed normal vectors and grid node coordinates, a quadratic surface is determined over each element to be the approximation of the curved reflector. Lastly, the refinement of structure elements is performed on quadratic surfaces. Simulations are performed with good results. The proposed method can reduce grid discretization error (GDE), improve the accuracy of numerical integration of the far field, and decrease the total number of structure elements.