Wave propagation through axially symmetric dielectric shells

Radomes significantly reduce missile guidance accuracy by producing boresight error (BSE), an error in target direction as determined by a seeker or radar system. Despite decades of development and use, radomes are a problem because newer missiles require small angular rates of change of BSE and because newer seekers have greater frequency bandwidths. The electromagnetic design process, for boresight error and bandwidth, is largely empirical because radome shapes are non-separable, making analysis approximate. The need for improving radome performance motivates efforts to improve analytical methods. The purpose of the research is to develop improved methods for analyzing radome electromagnetic effects. The main goals are as follows: Develop a geometric theory of diffraction (GTD) for dielectrics and in particular hollow dielectric shells, Extend the moment method for use with hollow dielectric shells. The GTD is intended to be relatively simple, and the moment method is intended to be accurate although more complex than the GTD.