Electromagnetic backscattering by plates and disks
With the recent development of diffraction coefficients for imperfectly conducting half-planes, it has become possible to analyze a wide variety of problems for which the impedance surface boundary condition applies. This impedance boundary condition, while approximate, was utilized to extend the usefulness of the Uniform Geometrical Theory of Diffraction (UTD) beyond the perfectly conducting geometries. These half-plane diffraction coefficients are used to analyze patterns of an antenna in the presence of an imperfectly conducting flat polygonal plate. The Geometrical Theory of Diffraction (GTD) techniques were also used to investigate the backscattering from perfectly conducting plates. To further improve the soft polarization results for wide angles, a model for the creeping wave or circulating current on the edge of the disk was obtained and used to find an additional component of the backscattered field. The backscattering from a square plate was then analyzed using GTD. Backscattering in both the principal and off-principal planes was examined.