Publications

Eubanks, Travis W.; Loui, Hung L.; McDonald, Jacob J.

Abstract not provided.

McDonald, Jacob J.

Abstract not provided.

McDonald, Jacob J.; Brock, Billy C.; Clem, Paul G.; Paquette, Joshua P.; Patitz, Ward E.; Calkins, David C.; Loui, Hung L.

In recent years, increasing deployment of large wind-turbine farms has become an issue of growing concern for the radar community. The large radar cross section (RCS) presented by wind turbines interferes with radar operation, and the Doppler shift caused by blade rotation causes problems identifying and tracking moving targets. Each new wind-turbine farm installation must be carefully evaluated for potential disruption of radar operation for air defense, air traffic control, weather sensing, and other applications. Several approaches currently exist to minimize conflict between wind-turbine farms and radar installations, including procedural adjustments, radar upgrades, and proper choice of low-impact wind-farm sites, but each has problems with limited effectiveness or prohibitive cost. An alternative approach, heretofore not technically feasible, is to reduce the RCS of wind turbines to the extent that they can be installed near existing radar installations. This report summarizes efforts to reduce wind-turbine RCS, with a particular emphasis on the blades. The report begins with a survey of the wind-turbine RCS-reduction literature to establish a baseline for comparison. The following topics are then addressed: electromagnetic model development and validation, novel material development, integration into wind-turbine fabrication processes, integrated-absorber design, and wind-turbine RCS modeling. Related topics of interest, including alternative mitigation techniques (procedural, at-the-radar, etc.), an introduction to RCS and electromagnetic scattering, and RCS-reduction modeling techniques, can be found in a previous report.

Clem, Paul G.; McDonald, Jacob J.; Brock, Billy C.; Paquette, Joshua P.; Spoerke, Erik D.; Wheeler, Jill S.; Calkins, David C.

Abstract not provided.

Eubanks, Travis W.; Loui, Hung L.; McDonald, Jacob J.

An antenna is considered to be placement-immune when the antenna operates effectively regardless of where it is placed. By building antennas on magnetic conductor materials, the radiated fields will be positively reinforced in the desired radiation direction instead of being negatively affected by the environment. Although this idea has been discussed thoroughly in theoretical research, the difficulty in building thin magnetic conductor materials necessary for in-phase field reflections prevents this technology from becoming more widespread. This project's purpose is to build and measure an electrically-small antenna on a new type of non-metallic, thin magnetic conductor. This problem has not been previously addressed because non-metallic, thin magnetic conductor materials have not yet been discovered. This work proposed the creation of an artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) with in-phase field reflections without using internal electric conductors, the placement of an electrically-small antenna on this magnetic conductor, and the development of a transmit-receive system that utilizes the substrate and electrically-small antenna. By not using internal electric conductors to create the AMC, the substrate thickness can be minimized. The electrically-small antenna will demonstrate the substrate's ability to make an antenna placement immune, and the transmit-receive system combines both the antenna and the substrate while adding a third layer of system complexity to demonstrate the complete idea.