On Wire-Grid Representation for Modeling Symmetrical Antenna Elements

Abstract

This paper focuses on the combination of the method of moments and the wire-grid approximation as an effective computational technique for modeling symmetrical antennas with low computational cost and accurate results. The criteria and conditions for the use of wire-grid surface approximation from various sources are presented together with new recommendations for modeling symmetrical antenna structures using the wire-grid approximation. These recommendations are used to calculate the characteristics of biconical and horn antennas at different frequencies. The results obtained using different grid and mesh settings are compared to those obtained analytically. Moreover, the results are compared to those obtained using the finite difference time domain numerical method, as well as the measured ones. All results are shown to be in a good agreement. The recommendations used for building a symmetrical wire-grid of those symmetrical antenna elements provided the most advantageous parameters of the grid and mesh settings and the wire radius, which are able to give quite accurate results with low computational cost. Additionally, the known equal area rule was modified for a rectangular grid form. The obtained radiation patterns of a conductive plate using both the original rule and the modified one are compared with the electrodynamic analysis results. It is shown that the use of the modified rule is more accurate when using a rectangle grid form.

Keywords

• computational electromagnetics
• numerical methods
• method of moments
• antennas
• radiation pattern
• input impedance