volume | PIER Journals

Abstract

This paper presents the temperature-dependent design of streamlined constant and variable thickness ablatable radomes for hypersonic applications. An optimized three-layer radome wall configuration is proposed, consisting of a radome shell sandwiched between an outer ablative layer and an inner matching layer. The outer ablative layer offers protection against temperatures up to 1600˚F, while the inner matching layer effectively prevents total internal reflections. The radome shell is designed using the inhomogeneous planar layer model to account for the temperature gradient existing across its thickness. The numerical analysis of the radome wall is done using the 3D ray tracing method with aperture integration. Power transmission and boresight error characteristics of the radomes remain stable over a thermal operating range of 250˚F to 1600˚F. The performance of the radomes in dynamic flight conditions is analyzed using the time step analysis. Post ablation, the power transmission of constant thickness and variable thickness radomes remains well above -0.6 dB and -0.5 dB, respectively. The broadband performance of both radomes is analyzed over the X-band. Except for the boresight direction, the power transmission over the X-band remains above -1 dB for all incidence angles. The maximum boresight error is observed to be less than 4.29 mrad over the X-band.

1. Dan, Yihua and Jian Yang, "Electromagnetic performance analysis of inhomogeneous radome walls considering temperature and ablation," Aerospace, Vol. 10, No. 11, 927, 2023.

2. Zhou, Licheng, Yongmao Pei, Rubing Zhang, and Daining Fang, "Design for broadband high-temperature radome wall with graded porous structure," AIAA Journal, Vol. 50, No. 9, 1956-1963, 2012.
doi:The server didn't respond in time.

3. Weckesser, L. B., R. K. Frazer, D. J. Yost, B. E. Kuehne, G. P. Tricoles, R. Hayward, and E. L. Rope, "Aerodynamic heating effects on radome boresight errors," Proceeding of 14th Symposium on Electromagnetic Windows, 45-51, Atlanta, GA, USA, 1978.

4. Kozlovskiy, Valerii, Valeriy Kozlovskiy, Oleksii Nimych, Liudmyla Klobukova, and Natalia Yakymchuk, "Model of the flat fairing antenna dielectric layer with aerodynamic heating," Informatyka, Automatyka, Pomiary w Gospodarce I Ochronie Środowiska, Vol. 13, No. 4, 119-125, 2023.

5. Favaloro, Michael, "Ablative materials," Kirk‐Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2000.

6. Brey, H., "Performance evaluation for a class of asymetrically ablated duroid radomes," 15th Symposium on Electromagnetic Windows, 117-127, 1980.

7. Mehmedagic, Igbal and Siva Thangam, "Modeling and simulation of aerodynamic nosecone ablation," Heat Transfer Summer Conference, Vol. 87905, V001T12A001, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 2024.

8. Denis, Flavien, Robert Hruschka, Myriam Bastide, Berthold Sauerwein, Yannick Hoarau, and Robert Mose, "Experimental investigation of thermal ablation by melting in a hypersonic shock tunnel," Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, Vol. 59, No. 4, 1406-1411, 2022.

9. Amar, Adam J., Brandon Oliver, Benjamin Kirk, Giovanni Salazar, and Justin Droba, "Overview of the charring ablator response (char) code," 46th AIAA Thermophysics Conference, 3385, Washington, D.C., 2016.

10. Seo, Min-Guk and Min-Jea Tahk, "Observability analysis and enhancement of radome aberration estimation with line-of-sight angle-only measurement," IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems, Vol. 51, No. 4, 3321-3331, 2015.

11. Wang, Congsi, Yan Wang, Yuankui Chen, Wei Gao, Qian Xu, Zhihai Wang, Jing Liu, Cheng Zhou, Wanye Xu, and Jianfeng Zhong, "Coupling model and electronic compensation of antenna-radome system for hypersonic vehicle with effect of high-temperature ablation," IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Vol. 68, No. 3, 2340-2355, 2019.

12. He, Xiao-Yang, De-Hua Kong, Wen-Wei Zhang, and Ming-Yao Xia, "An efficient volume integral equation method for analysis of boresight error of a radome with minor ablation," Electronics, Vol. 11, No. 23, 3861, 2022.

13. Duan, Wei, Xiaolong Weng, Yongzhi Li, Zhiming Li, Siyuan Bao, and Mei Bi, "Temperature-dependent electromagnetic performance predictions of a hypersonic radome based on variable thickness gradient dielectric multilayer walls," IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, Vol. 23, No. 8, 2381-2385, 2024.

14. Duan, Wei, Jianliang Xie, Mei Bi, Lun Qi, Yongzhi Li, Kai Li, Zhiming Li, and Xiaolong Weng, "Study on the electromagnetic performance of radome with laminar ablation for reentry applications," IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Vol. 72, No. 8, 6261-6269, 2024.

15. Kozakoff, D. J. and A. Ossin, "Design of an ablative missile radome for use with a shaped beam antenna," Electromagnetic Windows, 29, 1978.

16. Epperson, Jr., E. H., "Adaptively ablatable radome," US Patent 5,457,471, Oct. 1995.

17. Sonalikar, Hrishikesh S., "Temperature dependent EM investigation of inhomogeneous dielectric wall for application in ablatable radome," 2018 IEEE Indian Conference on Antennas and Propogation (InCAP), 1-5, Hyderabad, India, 2018.

18. Aparna, A. P. and H. S. Sonalikar, "Temperature dependent electromagnetic design of dielectric wall for airborne applications," 2019 IEEE Indian Conference on Antennas and Propogation (InCAP), 1-5, Ahmedabad, India, 2019.

19. Barik, Rudra Narayan, A. P. Aparna, and Hrishikesh S. Sonalikar, "Electromagnetic design of planar ablatable radome using inhomogeneous planar layer model," 2023 IEEE Microwaves, Antennas, and Propagation Conference (MAPCON), 1-5, Ahmedabad, India, 2023.

20. Crone, G. A. E., A. W. Rudge, and G. N. Taylor, "Design and performance of airborne radomes: A review," IEE Proceedings F (Communications, Radar and Signal Processing), Vol. 128, No. 7, 451-464, 1981.

21. Ehrlich, Paul, L. E. Amborski, and R. L. Burton, "Dielectric properties of teflon from room temperature to 314 C and from frequencies of 102 to 105 c/s," Journal of Research of the National Bureau of Standards, Vol. 51, 185-188, 1953.

22. Kilcoyne, N. R., A two-dimensional ray-tracing method for the calculation of radome boresight error and antenna pattern distortion, 2767–2, Defense Technical Information Center, FJlectro Science Lab., Ohio State Univ. Res. Foundation Rep., 1969.

23. Nair, Parul R. U. and R. M. Jha, "Temperature dependent EM performance predictions of dielectric slab based on inhomogeneous planar layer model," Proceedings of the 2012 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation, 1-2, Chicago, IL, USA, 2012.

24. Parameswaran, Aparna and H. S. Sonalikar, "Design of airborne radome using novel temperature dependent electromagnetic modeling," Progress In Electromagnetics Research C, Vol. 104, 37-52, 2020.

25. Gao, X. and L. Felsen, "Complex ray analysis of beam transmission through two-dimensional radomes," IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Vol. 33, No. 9, 963-975, 1985.

26. Nair, Raveendranath U. and Rakesh M. Jha, "Electromagnetic performance analysis of a novel monolithic radome for airborne applications," IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Vol. 57, No. 11, 3664-3668, 2009.

27. Shavit, Reuven, Radome Electromagnetic Theory and Design, John Wiley & Sons, 2018.

28. Kozakoff, Dennis J., Analysis of Radome-Enclosed Antennas, 2nd Edition Ed., Artech House, 2010.

29. Volakis, John Leonidas, Antenna Engineering Handbook, Vol. 1755, Mcgraw-Hill New York, 2007.

30. Shin, Hokeun, Daeyeong Yoon, Dong-Yeop Na, and Yong Bae Park, "Analysis of radome cross section of an aircraft equipped with a FSS radome," IEEE Access, Vol. 10, 33704-33712, 2022.

31. Tricoles, G. P., "Radome electromagnetic design," Antenna Handbook: Theory, Applications, and Design, 2051–2081, Springer, 1988.

32. Wang, Binbin, Mang He, Jinbo Liu, Hongwei Chen, Guoqiang Zhao, and Chuanfang Zhang, "An efficient integral equation/modified surface integration method for analysis of antenna-radome structures in receiving mode," IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Vol. 62, No. 9, 4884-4889, 2014.

33. Xu, Wanye, B. Y. Duan, Peng Li, and Yuanying Qiu, "Study on the electromagnetic performance of inhomogeneous radomes for airborne applications --- Part I: Characteristics of phase distortion and boresight error," IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Vol. 65, No. 6, 3162-3174, 2017.

34. Nair, Raveendranath U. and Rakesh M. Jha, "Electromagnetic design and performance analysis of airborne radomes: Trends and perspectives [antenna applications corner]," IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine, Vol. 56, No. 4, 276-298, 2014.

35. Yang, Lixin, Yanbin Li, Qiang Chen, Dahai Zhang, Qingguo Fei, and Jian Liu, "Electromagnetic design method of radomes under high temperature environment," IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, 1-1, 2025.

36. Ho, Cho Yen and Richard Erwin Taylor, Thermal Expansion of Solids, Vol. 4, ASM International, 1998.

37. Parameswaran, Aparna, Hrishikesh S. Sonalikar, and Debidas Kundu, "Temperature-dependent electromagnetic design of inhomogeneous planar layer variable thickness radome for power transmission enhancement," IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, Vol. 20, No. 8, 1572-1576, 2021.

38. Xu, Wanye, B. Y. Duan, Peng Li, Naigang Hu, and Yuanying Qiu, "Multiobjective particle swarm optimization of boresight error and transmission loss for airborne radomes," IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Vol. 62, No. 11, 5880-5885, 2014.

39. Nair, R. U., M. Suprava, and R. M. Jha, "Graded dielectric inhomogeneous streamlined radome for airborne applications," Electronics Letters, Vol. 51, No. 11, 862-863, 2015.

40. Yazeen, P. S. Mohammed, C. V. Vinisha, S. Vandana, M. Suprava, and Raveendranath U. Nair, "Electromagnetic performance analysis of graded dielectric inhomogeneous streamlined airborne radome," IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Vol. 65, No. 5, 2718-2723, 2017.

41. Nair, Raveendranath, Subhadramma Vandana, Sashidhara Sandhya, and Rakesh Mohan Jha, "Temperature-dependent electromagnetic performance predictions of a hypersonic streamlined radome," Progress In Electromagnetics Research, Vol. 154, 65-78, 2015.

42. Zhou, Licheng, Yongmao Pei, and Daining Fang, "Dual-band A-sandwich radome design for airborne applications," IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, Vol. 15, 218-221, 2015.

43. Xu, Wanye, B. Y. Duan, Peng Li, and Yuanying Qiu, "Study on the electromagnetic performance of inhomogeneous radomes for airborne applications --- Part II: The overall comparison with variable thickness radomes," IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Vol. 65, No. 6, 3175-3183, 2017.

44. Wang, Zekai, Liqun Tang, Licheng Zhou, Zhenyu Jiang, Zejia Liu, and Yiping Liu, "Methodology to design variable-thickness streamlined radomes with graded dielectric multilayered wall," IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Vol. 69, No. 11, 8015-8020, 2021.

Dr. Rudra Narayan Barik

Dr. Aparna Parameswaran

Dr. Hrishikesh Sonalikar