Optimally Placing an Antenna on a Vehicle
XF7, XFdtd | tagged Antenna Design Next Steps
Modern vehicles are equipped with numerous antennas for various applications.
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Determining the optimal location for a new antenna is not always a straightforward endeavor. XF is used to determine a location that maximizes electric field strength in front of the vehicle.
A CAD file of a Humvee was used for the base vehicle model. It was imported, then placed over a ground made of concrete. An initial location for the new antenna was chosen on the front passenger side, Figure 1.
A simulation was created and the electric field strength was analyzed in front of the vehicle. Figure 2 shows the 2D electric field distribution through the vehicle.
The scripting capability in XF7 was utilized to determine an optimal location for the antenna. Figure 3 shows the location that produces the highest field strength.
Figure 4 is the field distribution for the optimal location.
Figure 5 is a comparison between the initial and optimal locations at ground level. The optimal
location has a stronger field strength for all distances in front of the vehicle.
Remcom's XFdtd® 7.0 is a 3D EM simulation software package that provides engineers with powerful and innovative tools for modeling and EM simulation. It was designed to be simple and easy to use, but
with the power to handle the toughest simulations that engineers face today.
To further enhance our customers' productivity, XF7 includes XStream, our GPU acceleration technology, at no additional cost. Using the power and flexibility of NVIDIA's CUDA architecture, XStream tremendously improves EM simulation performance -- from 30 to 300 times faster than a modern 64-bit CPU.
