Analysis of dielectric coated metallic hard struts using equivalent surface currents at all material interfaces

An attempt to accurately analyze hard struts without using surface impedance models is presented. The authors consider initially only a strut coated with a dielectric layer, i.e., with no corrugations and no metallic strips on it. This strut coated with a dielectric layer will have minimum forward scattering, for the TM (transverse magnetic)-case only. It does not retain its minimum scattering characteristics for the TE (transverse electric)-case, for which the corrugations or strips are needed. Still, such a strut is applicable in a linearly polarized system, to reduce scattering for TM-case blockage losses, e.g., support struts located in the E-plane of axisymmetric reflector antennas. The calculation model is tested against measured results.<>