Antenna Design in Hypersonic Plasma Environment

The goal of this SBIR project is to develop a computational tool for characterizing TM and GPS antennas mounted on plasma-engulfed hypersonic missiles and re-entry vehicles. The computational tool leverages coupled Computational Electro-Magnetics (CEM) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) techniques to simulate antenna operation following prediction of the missile or vehicle"s plasma environment (sheet and wake). The tool will incorporate several innovations: i) octree Cartesian mesh for automatic mesh generation around complex geometries and dynamic mesh adaptation to plasma properties and electromagnetics, ii) high-fidelity, physics-based model of hypersonic plasma environment for a wide range of conditions (velocity and altitude) covering rarefied and continuum flow regimes, iii) state-of-the-art, fast, and high-order accurate CEM solvers for simulating wave propagation through plasma and the impact of the antenna and associated transmit power on the plasma environment. During Phase I, we will demonstrate the feasibility of the coupled CEM-CFD tool using simple ballistic re-entry vehicle geometry and antenna. In Phase II, we will fully develop the tool, demonstrate its capabilities for modeling realistic re-entry bodies supporting complex receiving and transmitting antennas and arrays thereof moving along general trajectories; the tool also will be validated against available test data.