Browsing by Author "Steele, Tristan Stuart"
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- ItemCombined structural and electromagnetic analysis of dish reflection antennas(2018-03) Steele, Tristan Stuart; Venter, Martin P.; Davidson, D. B.; Ludick, D. J.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Engineering. Dept. of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In recent scientific endeavours, such as the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project, significant attention (and funding) is being allocated to the design and analysis of radio telescope antenna systems, especially dish reflectors. For radio astronomy the accuracy requirements are very strict, and small changes in the shape of these antennae could result in these specifications no longer being met. In this study, a workflow process was developed to aid in the analysis of the radio telescopes while they are subject to gravitational deformation. The workflow describes procedures for performing coupled structural and electromagnetic analyses, as well as the procedures for sharing the simulation models between the respective solvers. Finite element analysis was used for the structural analysis and the method of moments and multilevel fast multipole method were used for the electromagnetic analysis. Simulations were run using the workflow process and the results compared to approximate analytical equations, where a good correlation was found. A numerical optimisation study was conducted on a simple primary-fed reflector antenna model to demonstrate how the workflow could be used in such an analysis. A case study of a real-life Cassegrain antenna was performed, and the results of these simulations were found to be similar to those of a previous study.