Analysis of intercostal effect on dual gridded reflectors

This article investigates on dual gridded reflectors (DGR) and the analysis of intercostal effect on these antennas. The level of improvement in the accuracy of prediction is determined by comparing co-pol patterns of several simulations with the measured co-pol pattern of the real reflector of a DGR. Initially, the DGR is analyzed with physical optics (PO). Then, the intercostal ring is introduced into the simulation and MoM/PO method is applied. Finally, posts are added into the model and MoM/PO method is re-applied. Results show that by adding intercostals into the model improves the accuracy of prediction at a significant level. In terms of deviation from the measurement, an average of 40% performance increase in prediction ability with MoM/PO method is achieved, as compared to PO method. In addition, no deterministic alteration in the performance of prediction is observed for the cases with or without posts. Hence, it can be claimed that the dominant part of intercostal effect is coming from the ring.