Analysis of High Intensity Radiated Field Coupling into Aircraft Using the Method of Moments

In this paper, electromagnetic effects arising from high intensity radiated fields (HIRF) within realistic aircraft structures are investigated using the method of moments (MoM) and experimental tests. This study focuses on simulation-to-measurement correlation, where two potential error sources are investigated: Accuracy of the numerical techniques and the generation of numerical models. It is shown that the conventional mixed potential electric field integral equation may lead to inaccurate results regarding the field penetration through apertures. An alternative integral equation is introduced which splits the computational domain into an interior and an exterior domain, improving the results for aperture problems. To analyze the accuracy and the range of applicability for these integral equations, a generic aircraft structure is investigated, both numerically and experimentally. Thereby, various modeling aspects required for a meaningful simulation of aircraft are discussed. Following these observations, a real aircraft is analyzed in a broad frequency range from 10 kHz to 1 GHz. It is demonstrated that accurate numerical techniques are as important as modeling and appropriate simplification of the considered structures.