ELECTROMAGNETIC ENVIRONMENT ENGINEERING — A SOLUTION TO THE EMI PANDEMIC

Abstract

ABSTRACTThere are severe electromagnetic interference (EMI) problems which are pandemic throughout the fleet with both known and unknown impact on the operational performance of ships. This paper suggests that the key solution to the EMI pandemic is to develop an engineering discipline in electromagnetics (EM) comparable to the stature of naval architecture and marine engineering to embed EM design considerations and tradeoffs throughout the ship and equipment design processes. Such an engineering discipline to electromagnetics, and a Navy management commitment to its implementation, would prevent EMI by allowing the use of engineering budgets, allocations, and margins based on predicted EM fields in optimization and design toward well defined performance requirements. The EM engineering discipline would rely on gathering existing resources, developing new approaches where needed, and implementing new steps in the ship design process to accomplish these objectives: (1) use of improved techniques for EM environment prediction, (2) identification of quantifiable performance measures, (3) developing the body of knowledge and traceability between performance and EM effects, (4) selection of ship and equipment design features based on EM considerations, and (5) iteration of the ship design based on EM results.