Assessment of FEM simulations in EMC test setups for small aeronautical platforms

ABSTRACT

The rise of fly-by-wire systems together with the utilization of new composite materials make it more and more difficult to assess and guarantee aircraft electromagnetic compatibility (EMC). As a result, the design phase becomes of paramount importance in the aircraft production process. Performing actual EMC tests over different configurations in such a phase would be very costly and time consuming, so reliable computational techniques are being explored in the last years. However, proper validation is needed in order to gain confidence in the results obtained by simulations. In this regard, this paper presents the assessment of a simulation approach based on the finite element method to reproduce typical setups of an EMC test laboratory for small aeronautical platforms. The final test object is based on an unmanned aerial vehicle but, first, a simpler test case is used to tune and assess the simulation approach. Once the approach is both qualitatively and quantitatively validated with measurements, new setups involving the aeronautical specimen are analysed.

KEYWORDS:

• Electromagnetic compatibility
• computational electromagnetics
• finite element analysis
• unmanned aerial vehicles

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

D. Poyatos http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3829-5110

Additional information

Funding

This work has been funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) under projects UAVEMI (TEC2013-48414-C3-2-R) and UAVE3 (TEC2016-79214-C3-1-R).

Notes on contributors

B. Plaza

B. Plaza was born in Madrid, Spain, in 1980. He received the M.Sc. degree in industrial engineering in 2005 from the University Carlos III of Madrid, Spain. He has given external engineering consultancy in different areas of INTA for more than 10 years. He is currently working in such terms for Radiofrequency Area of INTA. His research interests include computational electromagnetics applied to electromagnetic compatibility, antenna design and radar cross-section problems.

O. Ramajo

Ó. Ramajo was born in Madrid, Spain. He received the MSc degree in Physics & Photonic Technologies from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain, in 2004 and 2005, respectively. He joined INTA, Spain, in 2007 as a junior research assistant within the EMC Area. From 2008, he has worked for INTA both as an external engineering consultant and as a staff engineer of the laboratory of aggressions, always in the field of EMC. He has participated in Defense and Space national and international test & research projects related to EMC testing and new measurement techniques, as the METEOR program. Customers include Airbus, MBDA-UK, INDRA, SENER, among others.

D. López

D. López received the MSc degree in telecommunication engineering from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain, in 1988. After working in several companies like RYMSA (R&D RF engineer), HIRSMANN (R&D engineer for TV broadcast systems) and ALCATEL (Wide Band Radio Access and DECT Systems), he joined the EMC Laboratory of INTA, Spain, as an EMC trials engineer involved in civil, military and aeronautical EMC test campaigns. In 2008, he became Head of that same EMC Laboratory, leading classical EMC trials, high level ESD tests (personnel and helicopter threat), indirect lightning trials and electromagnetic pulsed tests.

D. Poyatos

D. Poyatos was born in Madrid, Spain. He received the M.Sc. degree from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain, and the Ph.D. degree from the University of Alcalá, Madrid, Spain, both in telecommunication engineering in 1998 and 2017, respectively. He joined INTA, Spain, in 1997 as a junior research assistant within the EMC Area. In 2000, he became an R&D+i engineer at the Detectability & Electronic Warfare Lab. He is currently the Head of the Radiofrequency Area, INTA. His research activities and interests include the theoretical and practical study of radar reflectivity, the electromagnetic characterization of materials, and the application of numerical methods to electromagnetics. He has co-authored more than 45 publications in books, journals, and conferences in the aforementioned areas of knowledge.

D. Escot

D. Escot was born in Madrid, Spain. He received the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in telecommunication engineering from the University of Alcala, Madrid, Spain, in 2002 and 2012, respectively. From 2002 to 2003, he worked as a junior Researcher at Telecom Bretagne, Brest, France. In 2004, he joined INTA, Spain, first as a Researcher and currently as a Scientist in the Radiofrequency Area. He has published numerous refereed journal articles and has been the principal investigator in several national and international research projects. His research interests include radar cross-section, computational electromagnetics, materials characterization, and EMC simulations.