Efficient 3-D RCS prediction technique for steps and grooves on an arbitrary shaped surface

The objective of the paper is to develop an accurate and efficient three-dimensional (3-D) analytic solution for predicting the radar cross section (RCS) of steps and grooves on an arbitrary shaped surface utilizing available two-dimensional (2-D) analytic or numerical solutions. It describes an efficient computational technique, which is referred to as the uniform field integration method (UFIM), to predict accurate 3-D backscattering or bistatic RCS levels from steps and grooves on an arbitrary shaped surface utilizing simple 2-D scattered field formulations. The grooves can be either a conducting or dielectric filled slab which is embedded in a ground plane. This technique utilizes a simple geometrical deformation of the piecewise continuous contour on the scattering object so that the available 2-D scattered field formulations can be directly applied. The essential feature introduced is that one can represent a piecewise continuous contour in the limiting case by a series of stairs where the stair step approaches zero and an analytical evaluation is used to carry out the line integration.<>