The method of relative phase applied to wire-type scattering structures

The method of moments in conjunction with the method of relative phase is used to determine the radar cross section (RCS) response from a collection of planar wire-type elements which may conform to a cylindrical surface. The method of moments is used to define the scattering matrices of each wire-type element which completely describes the object in 4 pi -space within a given bandwidth. The individual element responses are then combined using the relative phase differences, with the assumption that the phase-center is at the center of the wire object. Correlation is good between relative phase approximation predictions, moment-method predictions, and RCS measurements for element-to-element spacings greater than one wavelength. Two cases were investigated between 6-18 GHz for vertical polarization: (1) a loosely spaced arrangement of 4 star elements of the same size; and (2) a closely spaced arrangement of 17 star elements of different sizes.<>