Design Effects of the Junction Contour of a Blended Rolled Edge Compact Range Reflector

This paper is an extension of the authors prior work examining the design and optimisation of blended rolled edge (BRE) compact antenna test ranges (CATR) using evolutionary algorithms. The authors existing approach was initially improved and extended to provide broadband optimization of blended rolled edge (BRE) CATRs including refining the algorithm to take account of and reducing chamber wall illumination which is a recognized deficiency of the BRE CATR approach. In this paper the design approach is further extended to include the junction contour which in this study is adapted to remove the discontinuity in the reflector surface that is typically present in BRE CATRs, and further increases the available CATR design envelope. Worthwhile improvements in predicted QZ performance are obtained together with a further reduction in chamber wall illumination. These are highlighted together with the important reduction in the BRE reflector volume and mass.