420 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 44, NO.

3, MARCH 1996
0

s
Electromagnetic Scattering from Simple Jet Engine Models

Hristos T. Anastassiu, John L. Volakis,

Daniel C. Ross, and Dennis Andersh

Abstruct- The mode-matching (MM) technique is employed for the

evaluation of the radar cross section (RCS) of struetures that simulate
a jet engine inlet. The geometry consists of a perfectly conducting cylin-
drical inlet terminated by an array of blades mounted on a cylindrical
hub. Comparisons of numerical results with actual measurements are
presented for the first time.

I. INTRODUCTION
Accurate characterization of the scattering properties of jet engine
inlets is very important in radar cross-section (RCS) analysis, since
the engine contributes significantly to the scattering from aircraft
configurations. Although the airframe can be analyzed via high
frequency techniques employing ray tracing, the electrically small
details of the engine geometry make such an approach inaccurate. 8 GHz ThuaPol 8 GHz Phi Pol

Analytical results can be obtained only through rigorous, modal

techniques, and in [l] the formally exact mode matching (MM)
method was used for the computation of the RCS of three different
engine-like structures. The termination of the three cylindrical inlets
consisted of a cylindrical hub, a circular array of straight grooves,
and a circular array of curved grooves. To validate our solution in
[1], we relied on the satisfaction of the boundary conditions at the
interface between the hollow region of the inlet and the termination.
%Ws- e, 1-
However, no comparisons with any reference-scattering data were
given. Recently, measurements were collected for a cylindrical cavity (a)
terminated with an array of straight blades [2], and the purpose of Fig. 1. (a) Data for an inlet terminated by an array of straight blades (6 and
this letter is to compare our calculations against the measured data. 8 GHz) (continued).

11. NUMERICAL
RESULTS VERSUS. MEASUREMENTS * fVl,2:number of orders of cylindrical functions used in the hol-

The validation of the RCS for a cylindrical inlet terminated by
a cylindrical hub can be easily done [l], since the geometry is a
body of revolution. However, until recently, no reference data were
available for cavities terminated by blade-like geometries. For this
purpose, the model shown in Fig. 1 was constructed and measured
[2]. Following the notation used in the figure, the specifications of the
fabricated structure were b = 15cm, a = 7.5cm, Zl = 20cm (length
of hollow section), 12 = lOcm (length of termination), q5w = 40",
and 41 = 2.5", and the inlet was backed by a perfectly conducting
plate. The solid and dotted lines shown in the figures correspond to
calculated and measured data, respectively. To give more details about
the computations using the MM method, we define the following
parameters:
Manuscript received September 25, 1995;revised November 30, 1995. This
work was supported in part by the Wright Laboratories, Wright Patterson A I 3
under Contract F33615-94-C-1537.
H. T. Anastassiu, J. L. Volakis,and D. C. Ross are with the Radiation
Laboratory, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science,
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 USA.
D. Andersh was with the U.S. Air Force. He is now with DEMACO Inc.,
IL USA.
Publisher Item Identifier S 0018-926X(96)01827-3.
0018-926X/96$05.00 0 1996 IEEE
low section (subscript 1) and the termination section (subscript
n\
L);
M I J :number of modes per order used in the hollow section
(subscript 1) and the termination section (subscript 2).
Relative convergence problems are resolved if M I J , N I , Z are
chosen so that the highest order modes in both sections have
approximately the same cut-off frequency [l]. In generating the
calculated curves shown in the figures, the above parameters were
selected as follows:
6 GIPZ: fVi = 21, M I = 10, I&', = 6, Mz = 8 ;
8 G&: NI = 25, Mi = 10, Nz = 7 , Mz = 8;
10 GHz: NI= 30, Mi = 12, Nz = 7, Mz = 12;
12 GHz: NI = 33, Mi = 13, A'z 10, Mz = 8.
In spite of the model's and code's complexity, as well as the high
sensitivity of the patterns on the geometrical parameters, the agree-
ment between measured and calculated data is, in general, very good.
Most discrepancies are likely due to diffraction from the exterior back
section of the cylinder (not included in the calculated data) or the
Kirchhoff approximation of the field radiated through the aperture.
The reliability of the Kirchhoff approximation increases with the
aperture size, resulting in better agreement at higher frequencies.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 44, NO. 3, MARCH 1996 42 1

Finally, some inaccuracies stem from truncation of the infinite modal

expansions.
It should be pointed out that the memory and CPU time required by
the MM method increase drastically with the diameter of the structure.
Inlets wider than 20X in diameter require the storage and inversion
of several full matrices, larger than 1500 x 1500, and therefore, must
be analyzed on a multiprocessor computing facility.

111. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

We presented numerical results obtained via the MM technique
for the RCS of engine-like configurations. Comparisons between
computed and measured data were given for the first time in the
12 GHz Theta Pol. I2 GHz Phi Pol.
20
literature, and the agreement was shown to be very good. The given
results should prove very useful in future studies since they can
10.0
serve as reference data for validating numerical algorithms capable
0 of modeling more complex realistic geometries.
-100

-10.0
REFERENCES
-100
H. T. Anastassiu, 3. L. Volakis, and D. C. Ross, The mode matching
* n
~
0 IOW 2000 1 0 0 4OW JOW 6000 technique for electromagnetic scattering by cylindrical waveguides with
0, (dsgmr) 0, Ides-) canonical terminations, J. Electromagn. Waves Applicat., vol. 9, no.
11/12, pp. 1363-1391, Nov./Dec. 1995.
(b) G. Crabtree, W. Huegle, and D. Salisbury, RCS compact range test
Fig. 1. (continued) (b) Dats! for an inlet terminated by an array of straight results for a set of simplified engine face models, Rep. TM94226, GE
blades (10 and 12 GHz). Aircraft Engines, Cincinnati, OH, Nov. 1994.