Analysis Of Thermal Deformation Of Reflector Antenna And Its Compensation

The thermal deformation of the antenna is one of the most important factors which affect the antenna’s performance. Larger diameter size and higher precision make thermal effect more severe, and there is very little research in this area, so the research on the antenna’s thermal deformation has important reference value for the compensation of thermal deformation. Based on the theoretic analysis and case analysis, the article researches the thermal deformation and its compensation.Aiming at the compensation of antenna’s deformation, the main studies of this paper are rules of the thermal deformation of the antenna’s reflector, the compensation way of thermal deformation based on the electromagnetic propagation principle, optimization of the compensation way of thermal deformation based on paraboloid fitting and the development of compensation software.Calculate the ideal antenna’s thermal deformation on the typical condition of heat soakage and thermal gradient, use the Zernike polynomials to fit the deformed reflectors, and analyses the rules of the antenna’s deformation according to the coefficient of Zernike polynomials.The temperature of key nodes is measured by the measurement system. Then,the temperature is loaded on the antenna model to calculate the thermal deformation and extract the data. According to the nature of rotation surface, the data is used to calculate the direction vector of the center of rotation. Use extracted data and direction vector to solve the focus of the reflector. At last, the compensation value is gotten with the help of the focus.Considering accuracy and time cost in finite element calculation for the antenna, a way is proposed to divide the reflector of the antenna. In addition,a new compensation software is developed based on the paraboloid fitting. And this software can compensate the deformation of the antenna according the current operating conditions.