An Investigation on the Effect of Ground Plane Roughness on Antenna Radiation Characteristics

Abstract

This work considers the performance of a thin-wire monopole antenna over both a flat ground plane and a randomly-varying rough surface. The Method of Moments with the Electric Field Integral Equation (EFIE) is used to account for all coupling interactions. Monte Carlo averaging is used to compute results over multiple rough surface realizations, which follow the Pierson-Moskowtiz surface model. The results investigate the effect of increasing surface roughness, via increased wind speed, on the antenna input impedance and resulting total field. In particular, the antenna input reactance is found to be very sensitive to variations in the surface near the base of the antenna. The directionality of the Pierson-Moskowitz surface due to wind direction is also considered. Results show no significant difference in the radiated field pattern cuts in the parallel versus perpendicular wind directions.