On the Sensitivity of RCS to the Wall Conductivity of Highly-Conductive Structures with Voids

Abstract

One of the recently introduced camera-box benchmarks is used to investigate the sensitivity of radar cross section (RCS) to the wall conductivity of highly-conductive structures with voids. Simulation results show that the effect of wall conductivity varies with look angle and frequency: The object’s monostatic RCS, a function of both the housing and the void, is insensitive to the wall conductivity at angles blind to the void or frequencies where the modes in the void are below cut off. The RCS is sensitive to wall conductivity up to remarkably high values, however, at angles aware of the void and frequencies where the void supports modes; e.g., distinct differences in patterns are observed at void-aware angles at 10.24 GHz until conductivity is higher than 104 S/m. The study indicates that simulations that use the perfect-electric-conductor simplification may not accurately compute scattering from platforms containing even highly-conductive structures with voids.