The Establishment and Analysis of the Structural-Electromagnetic Coupling Model of the Electrostatically Controlled Deployable Membrane Antenna

A new structural-electromagnetic coupling (SEC) analysis based on quadratic elements is proposed to solve the mismatch problem between structural elements and electromagnetic grids of the electrostatically controlled deployable membrane antenna (ECDMA). Firstly, the ECDMA reflector surface is meshed and redefined by a series of quadratic elements. Without grid transformation, the calculating formulas for the far-field pattern of ECDMA are derived by the physical-optics method. Then the structural deformation of ECDMA is analyzed and the far-field pattern calculating formulas including deformation errors are developed. Simulation and experiment results show that the quadratic elements are effective and efficient in SEC analysis of the ECDMA, moreover, the electromagnetic grid size demand and the grid discretization error are reduced greatly.