Investigation of the Electrical Performance of High-Speed Aircraft Radomes using a Thermo-Mechanical-Electrical Coupling Model

During high-speed flight, both thermal and mechanical loads can degrade the electrical performance of the antenna-radome system, which can subsequently affect the performance of the guidance system. This paper presents a method for evaluating the electrical performance of the radome when subjected to thermo-mechanical-electrical (TME) coupling. The method involves establishing a TME coupling model (TME-CM) based on the TME sharing mesh model (TME-SMM) generated by the tetrahedral mesh partitioning of the radome structure. The effects of dielectric temperature drift and structural deformation on the radome's electrical performance are also considered. Firstly, the temperature field of the radome is obtained by transient thermal analysis while the deformation field of the radome is obtained by static analysis. Subsequently, the dielectric variation and structural deformation of the radome are accurately incorporated into the electrical simulation model based on the TME-SMM. The three-dimensional (3D) ray tracing method with the aperture integration technique is used to calculate the radome's electrical performance. A representative example is provided to illustrate the superiority and necessity of the proposed method. This is achieved by calculating and analyzing the changes in the radome's electrical performance over time during high-speed flight.