Simulation Driven Design and Optimization of Electrically Large Reflector Antennas
Altair EmployeeNumerical EM simulation is an established approach to optimize and validate designs for reflector antennas. For electrically large structures, however, memory requirements and runtimes can become quite extensive.
In this paper we show recent improvements of MLFMM (Multi-Level Fast Multipole Method) implementation in Altair Feko and compare the performance of this full wave solution with classical hybrid asymptotic methods using physical optics (PO). Advantages and limitations are discussed with several examples of reflector antenna configurations for space applications.
We then discuss how to apply such efficient MLFMM simulations for antenna optimization, multi-physics analysis and digital twins.
This article has been presented and published originally at 41th ESA Antenna Workshop on large deployable Antennas in September 2023.