Antenna Placement on Airbus A320
Numerous 3D modeling tools are being used inengineering. Despite the obstacles of proprietary fileformats and limited support for open formats, theinteroperability of different modeling tools becomesincreasingly important due to overall optimization ofdesign and production processes. WIPL-D Pro CAD
introduces wide support for transfering various models
created in third-party tools into WIPL-D Pro 3D EM
Solver.
The Airbus A320 model, shown in Fig. 1 was
imported from an IGES file. The airplane length is37.6 m, wing span is 34.1 m. The models containes
details such as windows and jet engine parts. No
model repair was needed after import. Using an
adaptive meshing algorithm, an all-quad mesh wascreated (Fig. 2) that adequately represented all thedetails and yet created larger quads on the fuselage andwings to use the speed of higher order MoM to fullextent.

Using the cropping and defeaturing techniques in
WIPL-D Pro CAD, the model was split in half andsimplified by removing all windows (Fig. 3). A quarter
wavelength monopole was then placed on the fuselage
and the gain of the system was calculated at 833 MHz,
with the airplane being 104 λ long at this frequency.

Fig 3. Mesh of Airbus A320 – Half model, windows removed

Rigorous higher order MoM in combination withadaptive expansion order reduction and the out-ofcore solver results in:Frequency

No. ofunknowns

Disk space
used

Simulationtime

833 MHz

66,27932.8 GB6.1 hours

The resulting radiation pattern in the symmetry planeis shown in Fig. 4.

Fig 1. Imported model of Airbus A320

Fig 4. Gain in the symmetry plane at 833 MHz of a monopole
placed on top of the fuselage, close to the noseFig 2. Mesh of Airbus A320 – Full model, no defeaturingwww.wipl-d.com
contactus@wipl-d.com

Placement of a small antenna on three different
positions on the aircraft was investigated next in orderto establish the influence of the wings and the tail on
the radiation pattern. A half-wavelength dipole wasplaced above the airplane fuselage at midpoint
between the wings and the nose, at wings, and at
midpoint between the wings and the tail (Fig. 5). The
simulation frequency was 1.53 GHz which meant theairplane was about 190 λ long.

to the overall radiation pattern and that hemispherical
coverage of the space above the airplane is possible
even from a position near the tail (Fig. 8 gives theradiation pattern in dB).

Fig 7. Comparison of radiation pattern for three dipole
positions with the radiation pattern of a dipole above infinite
PEC planeFig 5. Three positions for placing a dipole

Rigorous higher order MoM in combination withadaptive expansion order reduction and the out-ofcore solver results in:Frequency

No. ofunknowns

Disk space
used

Simulation
time1.53 GHz105,400

88.2 GB

31.5 hours

The radiation patterns in the symmetry plane for threedifferent positions of the dipole are shown in Fig. 6.

Fig 8. Comparison of radiation pattern for three dipole
positions with the radiation pattern of a dipole above infinite
PEC plane – in dB

The simulations were done on a desktop computerwith a Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 950 @ 3.07 GHz
clock rate.

Fig 6. Radiation patterns for three positions of the dipole

The influence of the tail is clearly visible in case when
the dipole is placed at the back (the encircleddisturbances in Fig. 6).
A comparison of the three radiation patterns with aradiation pattern of a dipole above infinite PEC planeis given in Fig. 7. This can give us a hint as to howlarge of a difference is between the airplane fuselage
and a infinite flat PEC plate at the frequency ofinterest. The diagram shows that the position of theplaced antenna does not make a significant influencewww.wipl-d.com
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