An extension module to embed commercially sensitive antenna models in gprMax

Models of antennas have been included in numerical simulations of ground penetrating radar (GPR) intermittently over the past 20 years with varying degrees of realism. Those antenna models that have been published have been mainly of antennas used in academia or for research purposes, and not regularly used commercial antennas. This is, of course, understandable as GPR manufacturers have a great deal invested in their intellectual property (IP) and want to protect it. However, there is a desire to find a solution to this problem, namely, to enable models of commercial antennas to be used in simulations whilst safeguarding the IP of the manufacturer. We present a framework that allows manufacturers to build encrypted modules containing models of their antennas that can be used with 3D gprMax models. All the properties of the antenna model such as the geometry, materials, and excitation, remain completely invisible to the user. The antenna module communicates with the main finite-difference time-domain grid by exchanging only electric and magnetic field values at boundaries around a volume enclosing the antenna. The initial development of this framework has been in done in cooperation with Sensors & Software Inc. using an experimental dipole antenna model. The finalised toolset will offer the potential of a step change in the quality of data from numerical models of GPR systems.