This paper is mainly devoted to application of the Gaussian beam summation technique in electromagnetic simulations problem. Gaussian beams are asymptotic solutions of the Helmholtz equation within the paraxial approximation. Since they are insensitive to ray transition region, several techniques based on Gaussian beam are used to evaluate high frequency EM wave equation, which overcome partially or fully the difficulties of singular regions (caustics, zero field in shadow zones). This paper concentrates on the explicit formulation of the electromagnetic field scattered from radar target. In this approach, when the incident field illuminates the target, the scattering is accounted in a complex weighing function. The wave field at a receiver is evaluated as superposition of Gaussian beams concentrated close to rays emerging from the target, passing through the neighbor of the receiver.
Asymptotic methods using high-frequency approximations and the hypothesis of locally plane wave are based on the principle of rays. A direct application of these methods in a complex scenario (3D with objects of large sizes) is often confronted with problems of caustic, transition between shadow and highlighted region and requires a prohibitive calculation time due to the huge number rays necessary to describe the scene. In this paper, we test and apply contribution of two different techniques essentially based on Gaussian beam to estimate the RCS of canonical radar target which can be further applied to complex scheme. The principal raison of our interest in Gaussian beam for simulating the radiated field by use of Gaussian beams is that they eliminates several limitations of the ray method, in particular the difficulties connected with evaluating the wave field in singular regions (caustics, shadow regions, etc.). As compared to the classical asymptotic technique, there exists relatively little work in the open literature regarding application of Gaussian beam in diffraction problem.
The GBS technique was already formalized for diverse configurations [
In the GBL formulation, the field radiated by the target illuminated by a Gaussian beam is decomposed into a plane wave spectrum. These Gaussian beams strike the surface from where they are reflected, and also diffracted by the reflector edge [
In this paper, Section 2 presents general formulation of the two methods. In the GBS approach we derive general equations for the Gaussian beam at a point situated in the effective vicinity of the receiver and the resultant field. We develop numerical computation and investigate the sensitivity of the solution to the selection of certain of the Gaussian beam parameters which enable the required accuracy. For the GBL formulation, we give asymptotic evaluation of the radiation integral for the fields scattered from the target, to within the physical optics approximation. Section 3 presents formulation of the scattered field by a monostatic RCS of canonical target, which involves a single platform operating as transmitter and receiver, illuminated by horizontally polarized incident plane wave, using GBS and a rotationally symmetric Gaussian be amusing GBL. In the former, the normalization coefficient of the integral is identified by matching the analytical solution to the ray asymptotic solution as it happens to the Geometrical Optic (GO) solution. The two methods will be compared and simulation with canonical target will be compared to asymptotic methods (Physical Optic) and rigorous method (Method of Moment) to assess the advantages of these techniques.
The Gaussian beam method, as a new approach for the computation of wave fields in high frequency approximation, was suggested by M.M. Popov [
where
propagation velocity, qT represents the transpose of the vector q, the quantities Q and P are 2 × 2 matrix called “dynamic quantities” satisfying the system ODE (2) in variations, called the “dynamic ray tracing equations” (DRT) [
To solve this above DRT system (2), the initial conditions must be specified at an arbitrary point s = s0 on the central ray. We must solve this system of differential equations for Q and P with appropriate initial conditions. They must guarantee the following three conditions along the whole rays [
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・
・
Here, we use Hill’s [
In (3), ω0 is the initial half beam width at the frequency ωr, I is the identity matrix. An exhaustive discussion of the dependence of the Gaussian beam solution with beam with ω0 is given in [
In (4) the domain δ is centered on the central ray, it delimits the beams propagating in the neighbor of the central ray, chosen in such way that the Gaussian beam
In (4)
The above solution is influenced by parameters which specify the properties of Gaussian beams used, mainly their width. We must learn how to select the parameters of computation to obtain the results with the required accuracy. We analyze the behavior of GBS solution for different beam width and investigate how this proposed solution offer better result near singularities where classical ray methods fail. We use simplest ray theory approximation for comparison, considering the direct ray. The results of the first numerical experiments were presented in [
For homogeneous medium, denoting r the distance to an observation point M, the ray asymptotic solution of the Helmholtz Equation is given by
On the other hand, the GBS integral, in Equation (4), may be evaluated asymptotically using the saddle-point method. Thus, this result must coincides with the above ray asymptotic solution in regular region. Matching both asymptotic solution of (4) and (6) we can determine the complex weight function Φφ. Integral (4) is evaluated by numerical quadrature with regular increment Δφ
The above GBS formulation will now be compared to the alternative approach called GBL. This technique consists in calculating the radiation integral of the fields scattered by the target illuminated by a Gaussian beam, within the physical optics approximation.
For the incident Gaussian beam, the incident magnetic field can be written as [
The PO integral, integration of the incident Gaussian beam on the reflector surface, give the electric fields scattered from the surface. The integral can be written as
where
from the waist of the incident Gaussian beam to point O on ∑ (see
We introduce the principle of calculation of the scattered field by a flat plate, illuminated by a plane wave, using GBS and rotationally symmetric Gaussian beams propagating in the zi direction using GBL, at 10 GHz. As described in Section 2, GBS is applied at the receiver and the weight function is identified by comparing the solution of (4), using steepest decent method, to those of Geometrical Optic.
Using equation (7), we have computed the scattered field applying GBS. Using equation (8) in (9) and solving the integral, we have computed the scattered field applying GBL formulation as in [
peak width and location match GBS and GBL technique. GBS and GBL accurately model the main beam, without mitigation, the diagrams are also consistent, and the modeled peak width and location match the PO solution. Comparing GBS and GBL one can observe a progressive degradation on GBL solution into the deep shade according to the mitigation. It is questionable in general whether the accuracy gained by using GBS would justify the additional complexity of the solution method.
The main purpose of the asymptotic approximation technique in electromagnetism is to give effective numerical solution of the wave equation combining accuracy and better computing time. We treat two different approaches to compute the electromagnetic field radiated from radar target. The beam methods promise several advantages over ray methods, particularly on caustic problem. In the GBS formulation, the total field at the receiver is represented by the integral over all Gaussian beams propagating in the neighbor of the receiver. Established solution is compared to another approach also based on Gaussian beam which consists of calculating the field radiated by the object illuminated by a Gaussian beam by decomposing it into a plane wave spectrum. The final field is the contribution of beams interacting with the target. This comparison shows that GBS and GBL give high accurate representation of the scattered field. Simulation with canonical target is shown and will be extended to complex target.
The work presented in this paper is supported by DGA (Direction Générale de l’Arme- ment, France)-MRIS in the frame of SOFAGEMM project.
Leye, P.O., Khenchaf, A. and Pouliguen, P. (2016) The Gaussian Beam Summation and the Gaussian Launching Methods in Scattering Problem. Journal of Electromagnetic Analysis and Ap- plications, 8, 219-225. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/jemaa.2016.810020