PurposeThe issues of radiating sources in the existence of smooth convex matters by such objects are of huge significance in the modeling of antennas on structures. Conformal antenna arrays are necessary when an antenna has to match to certain platforms. A fundamental problem in the design is that the possible surfaces for a conformal antenna are infinite in number. Furthermore, if there is no symmetry, each element will see a different environment, and this complicates the mathematics. As a consequence, the element factor cannot be factored out from the array factor.Design/methodology/approachThis paper intends to enhance the design of the conformal antenna. Here, the main objective of this task is to maximize the antenna gain and directivity from the first-side lobe and other side-lobes in the two way radiation pattern. Thus the adopted model is designed as a multiobjective concern. In order to attain this multiobjective function, both the element spacing and the radius of each antenna element should be optimized based on the probability of the Crow Search Algorithm (CSA). Thus the proposed method is named Probability Improved CSA (PI-CSA). Here, the First Null Beam Width (FNBW) and Side-Lobe Level (SLL) are minimized. Moreover, the adopted scheme is compared with conventional algorithms, and the results are attained.FindingsFrom the analysis, the gain of the presented PI-CSA scheme in terms of best performance was 52.68% superior to ABC, 25.11% superior to PSO, 13.38% superior to FF and 3.21% superior to CS algorithms. Moreover, the mean performance of the adopted model was 62.94% better than ABC, 13.06% better than PSO, 24.34% better than FF and 10.05% better than CS algorithms. By maximizing the gain and directivity, FNBW and SLL were decreased. Thus, the optimal design of the conformal antenna has been attained by the proposed PI-CSA algorithm in an effective way.Originality/valueThis paper presents a technique for enhancing the design of the conformal antenna using the PI-CSA algorithm. This is the first work that utilizes PI-CSA-based optimization for improving the design of the conformal antenna.
SAR Experiments Using a Conformal Antenna Array Radar Demonstrator