COMPUTATION AND VISUALIZATION OF THREE DIMENSIONAL RADIATION PATTERNS OF ANTENNAS

COMPUTATION AND VISUALIZATION OF THREE DIMENSIONAL RADIATION PATTERNS OF ANTENNAS

Joaquim, M.; Scheer, S.

Full Article:

This paper describes developed learning objects (or simulators) to aid in the an-tenna design teaching at an engineering technology level. An important motivation for the development of learning objects is to allow a quality and adapted teaching for Brazilian Uni-versities, in a free form, without spending with an expensive commercial software. The numerical methods are often used to compute important parameters of antennas. An essential parameter of any antenna is the three-dimensional (3D) radiation pattern. With the computa-tion of this 3D radiation pattern is possible to calculate other parameters as directivity, half-power angle, beam efficiency, levels of side lobes, and so on. Thus, an important aid in design of antennas is the visualization of 3D radiation patterns. A few learning objects was developed making use of the OpenGL graphics library to allow the visualization of three-dimensional radiation patterns of the following kinds of antennas: arrays of isotropic anten-nas, dipole antennas in free space and presence of perfect ground plane, and Yagi-Uda an-tennas. Other more adequate graphics software named Visualization Toolkit (VTK) has been used in the development of 3D simulators for antenna radiation patterns. VTK is an open-source, object-oriented software for computer graphics, visualization and image processing. Although it is large and complex, VTK is easy to be used once learned its basic object-oriented design and implementation methodology. VTK is a library of C++ classes. Neverthe-less, application developers may use interpreted languages Tcl, Python and Java. In this pa-per it was used Python and wxPython, a cross platform toolkit, for graphical user interface creation. The wxPython is a wrapper around wxWidgets, which is a mature cross platform C++ library. One of the objectives in use Python, wxPython and VTK is to allow fast devel-opment of scientific visualization prototypes. The second objective is to work with object-oriented design and to transform easily programs in Python (with wxPython and VTK) for programs in C++ (with wxWidgets and VTK). The last objective is to build large and complex applications of scientific visualization, which will be portable, fast and without cost for the students.

This paper describes developed learning objects (or simulators) to aid in the an-tenna design teaching at an engineering technology level. An important motivation for the development of learning objects is to allow a quality and adapted teaching for Brazilian Uni-versities, in a free form, without spending with an expensive commercial software. The numerical methods are often used to compute important parameters of antennas. An essential parameter of any antenna is the three-dimensional (3D) radiation pattern. With the computa-tion of this 3D radiation pattern is possible to calculate other parameters as directivity, half-power angle, beam efficiency, levels of side lobes, and so on. Thus, an important aid in design of antennas is the visualization of 3D radiation patterns. A few learning objects was developed making use of the OpenGL graphics library to allow the visualization of three-dimensional radiation patterns of the following kinds of antennas: arrays of isotropic anten-nas, dipole antennas in free space and presence of perfect ground plane, and Yagi-Uda an-tennas. Other more adequate graphics software named Visualization Toolkit (VTK) has been used in the development of 3D simulators for antenna radiation patterns. VTK is an open-source, object-oriented software for computer graphics, visualization and image processing. Although it is large and complex, VTK is easy to be used once learned its basic object-oriented design and implementation methodology. VTK is a library of C++ classes. Neverthe-less, application developers may use interpreted languages Tcl, Python and Java. In this pa-per it was used Python and wxPython, a cross platform toolkit, for graphical user interface creation. The wxPython is a wrapper around wxWidgets, which is a mature cross platform C++ library. One of the objectives in use Python, wxPython and VTK is to allow fast devel-opment of scientific visualization prototypes. The second objective is to work with object-oriented design and to transform easily programs in Python (with wxPython and VTK) for programs in C++ (with wxWidgets and VTK). The last objective is to build large and complex applications of scientific visualization, which will be portable, fast and without cost for the students.

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DOI: 10.5151/meceng-wccm2012-18769

Referências bibliográficas

• [1] Jian-Jing Jin. Theory and Computation of Electromagnetic Fields. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley Andamp; Sons, 2010.
• [2] Cohen M., Manssour I. H. OpenGL: Uma Abordagem Prática e Objetiva. São Paulo: No-vatec, 2006.
• [3] Schroeder W., Martin K., Lorensen B. The Visualization Toolkit. 3rd Edition. Clifton Park, NY: Kitware Inc., 2004.
• [4] Viezbicke P. P. NBS Technical Note 688: Yagi Antenna Design, 1976. Available in: Andlt; http://tf.nist.gov/timefreq/general/pdf/451.pdf Andgt; Access in: march, 25, 2011.
• [5] Balanis C. A. Teoria de Antenas: Análise e Síntese. Vol. 1 e 2. 3rd Ed. Rio de Janeiro: LTC, 2009.
• [6] Joaquim M., Scheer S. “Objetos de Aprendizagem para Visualização Gráfica Tridimensi-onal de Diagramas de Radiação de Antenas”. In: XXXIX Congresso Brasileiro de Educa-ção em Engenharia, 3 a 6 de outubro de 2011, Blumenau, SC.

Como citar:

Joaquim, M.; Scheer, S.; "COMPUTATION AND VISUALIZATION OF THREE DIMENSIONAL RADIATION PATTERNS OF ANTENNAS", p-2253-2261. In: In Proceedings of the 10th World Congress on Computational Mechanics [= Blucher Mechanical Engineering Proceedings, v. 1, n. 1]. São Paulo: Blucher, 2014.
ISSN 23580828, DOI 10.5151/meceng-wccm2012-18769