Specular points and critical gimbal angles of ogival radomes

Abstract

Results on critical gimbal angles of ogival radomes have been presented as a function of fineness ratios and source point locations. It is shown that, for a given source point and reflected ray direction, no more than two specular points generally exist on the radome inner surface. The critical gimbal angle, beyond which reflected rays contribute to geometrical optics fields, is obtained in terms of a turning-point effect. Critical gimbal angles computed are significantly different from previously published results which overlooked the turning-point effect. Special techniques to determine the contribution of specular points near the turning point are briefly discussed. The techniques proposed can be applied to rotationally symmetric geometries other than ogives. >