Diffraction by a conducting wedge in the near field

The purpose of this paper is to derive a near-field asymptotic solution for the diffraction of waves by a perfectly conducting wedge. Thus, starting from the series solution for cylindrical-wave incidence and using an integral expression for products of the Bessel functions involved, the total field is represented as a geometrical-optics term plus a diffraction integral. Using an integral form for the field of a spherical wave, the solution for the cylindrical-wave excitation is extended to the spherical-wave case. The method of steepest descent is used to obtain an asymptotic expression for the diffraction integral in terms of Fresnel integrals. The accuracy of our expressions is established by comparison with previous results as well as the exact solutions.