A hybrid FVTD-PO approach for the characterization of antennas on large platforms in naval applications

In this paper, a new hybrid method based on the combination of the Finite-Volume Time-Domain (FVTD) method with the physical optics (PO) approximation is presented. The aim is to characterize antennas mounted on or near large platforms such as in integrated masts. The basic idea is to subdivide the scattering domain into two parts. The first one, namely the 'FVTD region' is analyzed by using a full-wave solver for the Maxwell equations. The second one, namely the 'PO region' is described in terms of the PO approximation. Some preliminary results are reported in order to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.