Shape Control of Cable-Network Antennas Considering the RF Performance

Manufacturing errors can result in variation of the cable tensions and degradation of the RF performance of cable-network antennas. To compensate the effects of the manufacturing errors, a novel shape control procedure, which takes the RF performance into consideration, is presented. Both the boundary cables and the tension ties are selected as adjustable cables. Sensitivity analysis is adopted to evaluate the influence of the unstrained cable lengths on the RF performance and cable tensions. The antenna performance is finally expressed as the incremental form of the adjustable cable lengths on the basis of the sensitivity analysis. A mathematical model of the shape control procedure is established and solved using optimization strategy. The proposed shape control method is applied to a 10-m diameter cable-network antenna. Numerical results show that the directivity of the antenna is more sensitive to the boundary cable lengths, while the tension in a cable is much more sensitive to the length changes of itself, the cables connected to it, and the boundary cables. Comparisons of the directivities and tensions before and after shape control demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed shape control method and recommend the antenna RF performance as the shape control objective.