Computation of Fluctuating Wind Pressure and Wind Loads on Phased-Array Antennas

A necessary step in the design of a high-accuracy antenna system is to establish the signal-error budget due to structural, pointing, and environmental parameters. Wind disturbances are the main source of vibration, and, consequently, of pointing errors of the antenna in the open air. For these purposes, a method for computing the time history of wind pressure and wind loads on antennas within the atmospheric boundary layer is presented. The method is based on simulation of the wind field and a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technique. Taking a phased-array antenna as an example, the fluctuating wind pressure and wind loads on the antenna were computed and compared with measured data. The results showed that the fluctuating wind pressure and wind loads computed by the presented method were in good agreement with the data from a wind-tunnel test. The methods presented can be used to estimate the pointing error induced by wind, and for design of an antenna controller for different purposes.