Hybrid Electromagnetic Simulation using 2D-FDTD and Ray-tracing Methods for Airport Surfaces

Abstract

In this paper, a hybrid electromagnetic simulation method of two-dimensional FDTD and ray-tracing methods suitable for an airport surface was proposed. The power variation due to ground reflection, refraction and creeping is calculated by two-dimensional FDTD method and ray-tracing method is used to calculate the reflecting and diffracted powers from buildings. The proposed approach was validated by measurement using a 1/50 scale-model of an airport model with a building model in various positions at 5 GHz. The proposed method allowed measured power distributions to correlate with simulated figures to within 4.8 dB and their null positions were also estimated to an error tolerance of within 0.01 m.