Suppose, a plane wave is incident on a uniform linear array of dipole antennas. I would like to calculate the voltage induced at each port. I am interested in the phase difference of the voltage at each port. I computed that, but I am unable to understand what does CST take as its phase reference?
Any insight will be appreciated.
Thank you.
From CST help files
Plane Wave Source 📷
The plane wave excitation source provides you the opportunity to simulate an incident wave from a source, located a large distance from the observed object. In combination with farfield monitors, the radar cross section (RCS) of a scatterer may be calculated.
Please note that the input signal of an excited plane wave is normalized due to the user-defined value of the electric field vector (unit: V/m). The phase reference location of the plane wave excitation is the origin of the calculation domain.
When exciting with a plane wave, several conditions must be satisfied, which will be discussed in the following section.
Note: In case of plane wave excitation onto an infinite periodic structure, the unit cell approach is recommended, which is accessible via the boundary dialog.
up
Thank you Malcolm White.
I tried many times but somehow it does not make sense. I have an array of four dipoles. The phase differences between the elements make sense but I can not find zero phase (lets say a position in the computation domain where the phase is zero), if I put probes at multiple locations. Just curious to know what I am mising!
It will be the origin of your coordinate system. Your antennas will change the field by reflecting some and re-radiating some, so that the phase will not be zero there any more. It is only certain to be zero when the calculation area is free space, or perhaps uniform material.
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