Analysis of Active Doubly Curved Antenna Structures

Abstract

Abstract Recently, aperture antennas that have the ability to change their reflector shape through the usage of piezoelectric actuators have been studied. The results show that those antennas can exhibit beam steering and beam shaping in the far-field. However, the previous studies have been confined to cylindrical shape antennas. This study examines the use of “doubly curved” antenna structures to achieve better performance in controlling an antenna’s coverage area. The spherical antenna is modeled as a shallow spherical shell with a small hole at the apex for mounting. Following Reissener’s approach, a stress function is introduced and two governing equations are derived in terms of the stress function and the axial deflection. Next, the amount of deflections are evaluated from the calculated stress function and the axial deflection. As actuators, four PZT strip actuators are attached along the meridians separated by 90 degrees respectively. The force developed by the actuators are expanded in Fourier series and fed into the governing equations as boundary conditions at the outer edge. Finally, the Deflection vs. Applied Voltage is calculated analytically and its effect on the far-field radiation is given.