Electromagnetic Performance Analysis of a Radome Using Ray Tracing, Simulation, and Measurement

This paper presents an electromagnetic performance analysis of a nose-mounted radome designed to protect internal antennas in guided weapon systems. The radome must withstand aerodynamic loads during flight while maintaining high electromagnetic transparency to ensure stable antenna radiation characteristics. Common streamlined geometries, such as the Von Kármán and Tangent Ogive shapes, can introduce boresight error (BSE) and transmission loss (TL) due to their geometric and material properties, thereby degrading antenna performance. To address these effects, this study analyzes a Von Kármán-shaped radome using full-wave electromagnetic simulations in CST Microwave Studio (CST MWS) and physical optics (PO)-based ray tracing. The simulation results are validated against experimental measurements. The analysis further identifies performance deviations caused by fabrication tolerances and proposes optimal dielectric constant and thickness values by evaluating power density distribution and transmission characteristics at different incidence angles. The proposed methodology enables reliable prediction of pre-fabrication performance and verification of post-fabrication radome structures.