Adaptive Multilevel Nonuniform Grid Algorithm for the Accelerated Analysis of Composite Metallic–Dielectric Radomes

Abstract

An adaptive multilevel nonuniform grid (MLNG) algorithm is developed for the accelerated computation of fields radiated through composite metallic–dielectric radomes as well as antenna-radome interactions. The MLNG approach is applied to the mixed potential formulation of the coupled surface and volume electric field integral equations. The radome is decomposed into a hierarchy of subdomains (SDs) by an adaptive algorithm that closely follows the radome geometry, allowing significant savings in memory and CPU time. In the MLNG algorithm, only local generalized impedance matrices of the finest level SDs are evaluated. Far-zone potentials and fields are indirectly evaluated through a multilevel aggregation involving phase-and amplitude-compensated interpolation on nonuniform grids (NGs), requiring considerably fewer calculations as compared with the classical method of moments (MoM). The MLNG algorithm is incorporated in a preconditioned iterative solver. Accuracy as well as memory consumption and computation times of the algorithm are studied on realistic examples. The radome effect on the antenna input impedance and electric current density distribution is demonstrated. The method is validated by comparison with a commercial MoM software and shown to exhibit a computational complexity (CC) of O(NlogN), N being the number of unknowns.