Design of radar absorbing structures using glass/epoxy composite containing carbon black in X-band frequency ranges

It is an important issue not only for military purposes but also from commercial point of view, whether or not the reflective wave from an incident electromagnetic wave can be nullified. In this research, by blending conductive carbon black with the binder matrix of glass/epoxy composite, a radar absorbing structure (RAS) which can support loads and absorb the electromagnetic wave has been designed. The RAS was specially designed so as to exhibit the optimum absorptivity for X-band of (8.2-12 GHz) frequency ranges, centered at 10 GHz. Its absorbing characteristics were also investigated. Unlike other existing measurements of reflection loss using a waveguide, the reflection loss within an anechoic chamber simulating the radar cross section method of measurement was used with a plane-wave shaped incident wave. An optimized multi-layer design of RAS using the adopted material system is described in this research. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.