Analysis of electromagnetic scattering characteristics of plasma sheath surrounding a hypersonic aerocraft based on high-order auxiliary differential equation finite-difference time-domain

Abstract

A numerical analysis of electromagnetic (EM) scattering characteristics of a hypersonic aerocraft enveloped by a plasma sheath is presented. The flow field parameters around a hypersonic aerocraft are derived by numerically solving the Navier-Stokes equations. Through multiphysics coupling of flow field and electromagnetic field, distributions of plasma frequency and collision frequency in plasma sheaths are obtained. A high-order auxiliary differential equation finite-difference time-domain algorithm is employed to investigate the EM wave scattering properties of the aerocraft covered by a plasma sheath. The backward radar cross sections (RCSs) of a blunt cone in the hypersonic flows at different velocities and altitudes with frequencies from 0.1 GHz to 18 GHz are studied. Numerical results show that, for the cases of altitude ranging from 50 km to 55 km and velocity ranging from 18 Ma to 20 Ma, the plasma sheath enhances the backscattering of the blunt cone when frequencies are below 1.5 GHz, and it reduces the backward RCSs of the blunt cone as frequency ranges from 1.5 GHz to 13.5 GHz. The plasma sheath has a larger attenuation effect for frequency lying in the range of 2 GHz to 6 GHz, but it has little influence on the backward electromagnetic scattering characteristics when frequencies are above 14 GHz.