Gravity Deformation and Gain Loss of 12m Reflector Antenna

Based on the structural analysis, a gravity deformation model is derived by superposition that described the main reflector distortions over the entire range of elevation angles. The aperture efficiency and gain loss is calculated using Ruze formula. To simulate the gravity deformation, a finite element model of antenna structure is created and input to the ANSYS program. The displacements of the surface panel mounting points are best fitted with a paraboloid. Some comparisons using the results from both methods are presented together with the explanations of the precision of the superposition method.