Experimental wire grid modelling for antennas on structures

Experimental wire grid models have been constructed to test the approximate problem of the performance of an antenna on a metal structure such as an aircraft. The results show that, at least in the case of monopole antennas on finite ground planes, the approximate problem of a wire grid model with grid spacing of about 0.1 wavelength is well matched to a continuous metal structure, both in far-field radiation properties and input impedance. This suggests that it is the approximate mathematical solution near the driving point, rather than the limited number of wire segments, that can limit the accuracy of input impedance predictions using theoretical wire grid modelling.