Aerodynamic Optimization of Airborne Radome for Maritime Patrol Radar

Abstract

Airborne Early Warning (AEW) systems are deployed for getting surveillance information on airborne enemy targets. Electromagnetic sensors such as Radars are integrated on airborne platforms for collecting such information. Maritime Patrol Radar (MPR) is used for surveillance of sea surface for various types of ships and low flying aircraft. The antenna of MPR is belly mounted on typical turbo prop aircraft and protected from environment with a cover called Radome. Airborne radomes are electromagnetically transparent. The radome installation introduces additional drag which will reduce the range of the aircraft. To minimise the drag due to installation of radome, the profile has to be stream-lined or optimised with CFD analysis for certain operational points of aircraft flight. Design of radome is multidisciplinary effort involving Aerodynamics, Structures and Electromagnetic disciplines. In this study, aerodynamic optimization of a radome for a given antenna size is carried out using a combination Genetic Algorithm (GA) and traditional optimisation methods to find the Utopia point for further investigation on Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (MDO) of radome. This is necessary to progress on optimisation with other disciplines like Structures and Electromagnetics (EM)