Radar Cross-Section (RCS)

The analysis of scattering properties of an object is typically used to:

• Minimise the scattering of an object (e.g. stealth designs)
  
• Improve radar performance in stealth environments
  

Methods to lower the radar cross section (RCS) of an object include the use of advanced composite materials and to add absorbing materials to the object.

FEKO can be used for scattering analysis of metallic and dielectric bodies of small and large electrical size. The Multilevel Fast Multipole Method (MLFMM) is an efficient tool for scattering analysis and employs smart initialization of its iterative solver to speed up convergence for monostatic RCS computation over a range of angles. Even so, electrical size can become so large that the computational cost of MLFMM becomes prohibitive. In such cases, Physical Optics (PO) or Ray-Launching Geometrical Optics (RL-GO) can be used. In cases where multiple reflections are not significant, the large element PO (LE-PO) provides an extremely efficient solution.

RCS of aircraft with carbon fibre body panels, compared with the PEC case