Wideband phased arrays require very tight element spacing to permit wide angle scanning of the main beam over the wide bandwidth. The consequence of tight spacing is very high mutual coupling among the elements in the array. Previous efforts by Virginia Tech Antenna Group has shown that the strong coupling can be utilized in arrays to obtain broadband frequency response while maintaining a small element spacing. However, mutual coupling between elements in a tightly coupled array can sometimes dramatically change the operating frequency, bandwidth, and radiation pattern from that of the single isolated element. Thus, there are some fundamental questions that remain regarding the effective operation of highly coupled arrays for beam forming, beam scanning, and aperture reconfiguration. Existing antenna pattern analysis techniques including the active element pattern method are inadequate for the application in highly coupled arrays. This dissertation focuses on the development of a new antenna array analysis technique. The presented method is based on the scattering parameter network descriptions of the array elements, associated feed network and the active element patterns. The developed model is general. It can be applied to an array of any size and configuration. The model can be utilized to determine directivity, gain and realized gain of arrays as well as their radiation efficiency and impedance mismatch. Using the network model, the relationship between radiation pattern characteristics and the input impedance characteristics of the array antennas becomes clear. Three types of source impedance matching conditions for array antennas are investigated using the model. A numerically simulated array of strip dipole array is used to investigate the effects of various impedance matching methods on the radiation pattern and impedance bandwidth. An application of network analysis is presented on an experimental investigation of $3\times 3$ Foursquare array test bed to further verify the concepts. / Ph. D.

yes / The envelope correlation for a two-element antenna array may be calculated using the antenna radiation fields, or more simply from the scattering parameters of the system. The use of scattering parameters provides a major simplification over the direct use of field data. In this paper we propose a modification of the scattering parameter method which also includes the antenna losses. This approach has the advantage of simplifying the antenna design process, especially when low envelope correlations are needed. It also offers a better prediction of the spatial envelope correlation, and a good framework for understanding the effects of the mutual coupling. The accuracy of this proposed method is illustrated by two examples.

A medida do teor de umidade de materiais resulta em ganhos econômicos e ambientais ao possibilitar o controle preciso da secagem de produtos agrícolas, de processos de cura e armazenagem, e reduzir perdas de material e consumo de energia. Tal medida pode ser feita através da interação de ondas eletromagnéticas nas frequências de micro-ondas. Apresenta-se o desenvolvimento histórico e o estado da arte dessa área da metrologia que é conhecida por aquametria por micro-ondas. Detalha-se o comportamento das ondas eletromagnéticas em dielétricos, o modelo de espalhamento nas interfaces das amostras, a relação entre a permissividade complexa e a umidade, métodos para a determinação da permissividade, instrumentos, sistemas e aspectos metrológicos da cadeia de medição para espectroscopia dielétrica. Dois novos métodos, com equações explícitas originais para a determinação da permissividade são obtidos. As novas equações resultam em incerteza menor que os métodos clássicos. Uma nova metodologia, através do método de Monte Carlo, é empregada para a avaliação das mesmas. Conclui-se que o desenvolvimento da aquametria passa, necessariamente, pelo aperfeiçoamento dos instrumentos e métodos para determinação da permissividade dos materiais. / The measurement of moisture content of materials results in economic and environmental gains. Monitoring drying and curing of materials prevents loss of products and waste of energy. This can be done through the interaction of electromagnetic waves at microwave frequencies. This dissertation presents the historical development and the state-of-the-art in aquametry, the behavior of electromagnetic waves in dielectrics, sample interface scattering model, the relationship between the complex permittivity and moisture, methods for determining permittivity, instruments and metrological aspects of the measurement chain, and some instruments for dielectric spectroscopy. Two new methods, capable of providing explicit equation for the permittivity, are obtained and the Monte Carlo method is applied to determine their uncertainty. The new equations have lower uncertainty than the classic methods. The general conclusion is that the development of instrumentation and techniques in aquametry must be based in improvements in permittivity measurement.

A medida do teor de umidade de materiais resulta em ganhos econômicos e ambientais ao possibilitar o controle preciso da secagem de produtos agrícolas, de processos de cura e armazenagem, e reduzir perdas de material e consumo de energia. Tal medida pode ser feita através da interação de ondas eletromagnéticas nas frequências de micro-ondas. Apresenta-se o desenvolvimento histórico e o estado da arte dessa área da metrologia que é conhecida por aquametria por micro-ondas. Detalha-se o comportamento das ondas eletromagnéticas em dielétricos, o modelo de espalhamento nas interfaces das amostras, a relação entre a permissividade complexa e a umidade, métodos para a determinação da permissividade, instrumentos, sistemas e aspectos metrológicos da cadeia de medição para espectroscopia dielétrica. Dois novos métodos, com equações explícitas originais para a determinação da permissividade são obtidos. As novas equações resultam em incerteza menor que os métodos clássicos. Uma nova metodologia, através do método de Monte Carlo, é empregada para a avaliação das mesmas. Conclui-se que o desenvolvimento da aquametria passa, necessariamente, pelo aperfeiçoamento dos instrumentos e métodos para determinação da permissividade dos materiais. / The measurement of moisture content of materials results in economic and environmental gains. Monitoring drying and curing of materials prevents loss of products and waste of energy. This can be done through the interaction of electromagnetic waves at microwave frequencies. This dissertation presents the historical development and the state-of-the-art in aquametry, the behavior of electromagnetic waves in dielectrics, sample interface scattering model, the relationship between the complex permittivity and moisture, methods for determining permittivity, instruments and metrological aspects of the measurement chain, and some instruments for dielectric spectroscopy. Two new methods, capable of providing explicit equation for the permittivity, are obtained and the Monte Carlo method is applied to determine their uncertainty. The new equations have lower uncertainty than the classic methods. The general conclusion is that the development of instrumentation and techniques in aquametry must be based in improvements in permittivity measurement.

A medida do teor de umidade de materiais resulta em ganhos econômicos e ambientais ao possibilitar o controle preciso da secagem de produtos agrícolas, de processos de cura e armazenagem, e reduzir perdas de material e consumo de energia. Tal medida pode ser feita através da interação de ondas eletromagnéticas nas frequências de micro-ondas. Apresenta-se o desenvolvimento histórico e o estado da arte dessa área da metrologia que é conhecida por aquametria por micro-ondas. Detalha-se o comportamento das ondas eletromagnéticas em dielétricos, o modelo de espalhamento nas interfaces das amostras, a relação entre a permissividade complexa e a umidade, métodos para a determinação da permissividade, instrumentos, sistemas e aspectos metrológicos da cadeia de medição para espectroscopia dielétrica. Dois novos métodos, com equações explícitas originais para a determinação da permissividade são obtidos. As novas equações resultam em incerteza menor que os métodos clássicos. Uma nova metodologia, através do método de Monte Carlo, é empregada para a avaliação das mesmas. Conclui-se que o desenvolvimento da aquametria passa, necessariamente, pelo aperfeiçoamento dos instrumentos e métodos para determinação da permissividade dos materiais. / The measurement of moisture content of materials results in economic and environmental gains. Monitoring drying and curing of materials prevents loss of products and waste of energy. This can be done through the interaction of electromagnetic waves at microwave frequencies. This dissertation presents the historical development and the state-of-the-art in aquametry, the behavior of electromagnetic waves in dielectrics, sample interface scattering model, the relationship between the complex permittivity and moisture, methods for determining permittivity, instruments and metrological aspects of the measurement chain, and some instruments for dielectric spectroscopy. Two new methods, capable of providing explicit equation for the permittivity, are obtained and the Monte Carlo method is applied to determine their uncertainty. The new equations have lower uncertainty than the classic methods. The general conclusion is that the development of instrumentation and techniques in aquametry must be based in improvements in permittivity measurement.

Les phénomènes de diffraction et de diffusion des ondes jouent un rôle important dans l'interprétation de la coda des sismogrammes. Par conséquent, une compréhension approfondie des mécanismes de diffraction et de leurs influences sur la propagation des ondes est une étape fondamentale vers l'identification des propriétés statistiques d'un milieu aléatoire. Cette thèse porte sur la diffraction des ondes élastiques dans des milieux aléatoirement hétérogènes avec un comportement local isotrope. On s'intéresse au régime où: La longueur d'onde est du même ordre de grandeur que la longueur de corrélation, la longueur d'onde est petite comparé à la distance de propagation (haute-fréquence) et l'amplitude des fluctuations est petite. Une approche cinétique basée sur les équations de transfert radiatif des ondes élastiques est adoptée. La première partie de cette thèse décrit une analyse détaillée de l'influence de la structure de corrélation sur les paramètres de diffraction et sur l'établissement d'un régime de diffusion. La seconde partie présente les simulations éléments spectraux à grande échelle des ondes élastiques afin d'observer numériquement l'apparition d'un régime d'équipartition. Des analyses théoriques ainsi que des simulations montrent également une nouvelle approche pour l'identification des propriétés statistiques du milieu. / Scattering and diffusion phenomena play a crucial role in the interpretation of the coda part ofseismograms. Consequently, a profound understanding of scattering mechanisms and their effectson wave propagation is a fundamental step towards the identification of the statistical propertiesof random media. The focus of this work is on the scattering of elastic waves in a randomly heterogeneousmedia with locally isotropic material behavior. The weakly heterogeneous regime isconsidered, in which the wave length is similar to the correlation length, the wave length is smallcompared to the propagation length (high frequency) and the amplitude of the heterogeneities issmall. A kinetic framework based on the transport equations of elastic waves is adopted. Thefirst part of the thesis describes a detailed analysis of the influence of the correlation structure onthe scattering parameters and on the arising of the diffusion regime. The second part presentslarge scale spectral element simulations of elastic waves to observe numerically the onset of theequipartitioning regime. The theoretical analyses and simulations also reveal a novel approach toidentify local properties of the heterogeneous medium.

In the aspect of electric-ship grounding, the time-domain behavior of the ship hull is needed. The grounding scheme impacts the nature of voltage transients during switching events and faults, identifiability and locatability of ground faults, fault current levels, and power quality. Due to the large size of ships compared with the wavelengths of the desired signals, time-domain measurement or simulation is a time-consuming process. Therefore, it is preferred that the behavior be studied in the frequency-domain. In the frequency-domain one can break down the whole ship hull into small blocks and find the frequency behavior of each block (scattering parameters) in a short time and then connect these blocks and find the whole ship hull scattering parameters. Then these scattering pa- rameters should be transferred to the time-domain. The problem with this process is that the measured frequency-domain data (or the simulated data) is band-limited so, while calculating time-domain solutions, due to missing DC and low frequency content the time-domain response encounters causality, passivity and time-delay problems. Despite availability of several software and simulation packets that convert frequency-domain information to time-domain, all are known to suffer from the above mentioned problems. This dissertation provides a solution for computing the Time-Domain Impulse-Response for a system by using its measured or simulated scattering parameters. In this regard, a novel wavelet computational approach is introduced.

No description available.

With the rapid growth and use of wearable devices over the last decade, the advantages of using portable wearable devices are now been utilised for day to day activities. These wearable devices are designed to be flexible, low profile, light-weight and smoothly integrated into daily life. Wearable transmission lines are required to transport RF signals between various pieces of wearable communication equipment and to connect fabric based antennas to transmitters and receivers; the stitched transmission line is one of the hardware solutions developed to enhance the connectivity between these wearable devices. Textile manufacturing techniques that employ the use of sewing machines alongside conductive textile materials can be used to fabricate the stitched transmission line. In this thesis the feasibility of using a sewing machine in fabrication of a novel stitched transmission line for wearable devices using the idea of a braided coaxial cable have been examined. The sewing machine used is capable of a zig-zag stitch with approximate width and length within the range of 0-6 mm and 0-4mm respectively. The inner conductor and the tubular insulated layer of the stitched transmission lines were selected as RG 174, while the stitched shields were made up of copper wires and conductive threads from Light Stiches®. For shielding purpose, the structure is stitched onto a denim material with a conductive thread with the aid of a novel manufacturing technique using a standard hardware. The Scattering Parameters of the stitched transmission line were investigated with three different stitch angles 85°, 65° and 31° through simulation and experiments, with the results demonstrating that the stitched transmission line can work usefully and consistently from 0.04 to 4GHz. The extracted Scattering parameters indicated a decrease in DC loss with increased stitch angle and an increase in radiation loses, which tends to increase with increase in frequency. The proposed stitched transmission line makes a viable transmission line but a short stitch length is associated with larger losses through resistance. The DC losses observed are mainly influenced by the resistance of the conductive threads at lower frequencies while the radiation losses are influenced by the wider apertures related to the stitch angles and increase in frequency along the line. The performances of the stitched transmission line with different stitch patterns, when subjected to washing cycles and when bent through curved angles 90° and 180° were also investigated and results presented. Also, the sensitivity of the design to manufacturing tolerances was also considered. First the behaviour of the stitched transmission line with two different substrates Denim and Felt were investigated with the results indicating an insignificant increase in losses with the Denim material. Secondly, the sensitivity of the design with variations in cross section dimensions was investigated using numerical modelling techniques and the results showed that the impedance of the stitched transmission line increases when the cross sectional dimensions are decreased by 0.40mm and decreases when the cross sectional dimensions are increased by 0.40mm. Equally, repeatability of the stitched transmission line with three different stitch angles 85°, 65° and 31° were carried out. The results were seen to be consistent up to 2.5GHz, with slight deviations above that, which are mainly as a result of multiple reflections along the line resulting in loss ripples. The DC resistance of the stitched transmission line with three different stitch angles 85°, 65° and 31° corresponding to the number of stitches 60,90 and 162 were computed and a mathematical relationship was derived for computing the DC resistance of the stitch transmission line for any given number of stitches. The DC resistance computed results of 25.6Ω, 17.3Ω and 13.1Ω, for 31°, 65° and 85° stitch angles, indicated an increase in DC resistance of the stitch with decrease in stitch angle which gives rise to an increase in number of stitches. The transfer impedance of the stitched transmission line was also computed at low frequency (< 1GHz) to be ZT=(0.24+j1.09)Ω, with the result showing the effectiveness of the shield of the stitched transmission line at low frequency (< 1GHz).

No description available.