An Approximate Method for Calculating the Near-Field Mutual Coupling Between Line-of-Sight Antennas on Vehicles

Calculating the mutual coupling between antennas on vehicles using full-wave simulations requires a vast amount of computer resources due to the electrical size of the structures. We therefore propose an alternative and approximate method to determine mutual coupling between antennas on vehicles for the case where there is line-of-sight (LOS) between the antennas. The proposed method is based on approximating the mutual coupling between LOS antennas on vehicles as near-field transmission between antennas in free space. We begin the analysis with a brief review of four methods for calculating the near-field free-space transmission. Of the investigated methods, we demonstrate that a nonsingular form of the near-field transmission integral originally proposed by Yaghjian (1982) is the most suitable for LOS antennas on vehicles. We introduce a modification to this method, in order to only use the antenna far-fields and geometrical separation to determine the mutual coupling. The comparison with full-wave simulations indicates that the proposed method has a good accuracy for LOS antennas. This paper ends with a full-scale mutual coupling calculation for two monopoles on an aircraft under LOS conditions, demonstrating a root mean square (rms) accuracy of 6 dB for frequencies up to 5 GHz, as compared with full-wave simulations.