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Materials Today: Proceedings 2 (2015) 2246 2255

4th International Conference on Materials Processing and Characterization

Stress analysis of Costal RADAR antenna Mounting base using

ANSYS
Tushar Tandon, Nithin Kumar KC, Amir Shaikh, Praveen Silori*
*Department of Mechanical Engineering, Graphic Era University, Dehradun-248002, Uttarakhand, India

Abstract

Radar antenna structures which are integrated into structures of defence systems are subjected to different loads.
Due to occurrence of these loads there will be certain deformations which affect the antenna performance in adverse
manner. Designing of RADAR antenna requires certain parameters such as precision, resistant to chemical attack,
light weight and ability to perform its intended functions. The costal RADAR antenna performance is mainly
affected by the wind speed, natural calamities and humidity. Static structural analyses are carried out for both
conventional and composite materials. Using Solid Edge V19, a CAD model is prepared and analysis is to be carried
out using ANSYS 14.0.In the analysis it is found that composite materials are much superior than conventional
materials as far as deformation and maximum stresses are considered.

2014 The Authors. Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection andpeer-review
Selection and peer-review under
under responsibility
responsibility of theofconference
the conference committee
committee members
members of the 4thofInternational
the 4th International
conference conference
on Materialson
Materials
Processing Processing and Characterization.
and Characterization.

Keywords:RADAR antenna, Mounting Base, FEA, ANSYS, Composite Materials

1. Introduction

The major sources of mechanical deformation of any aerospace or defence structure are the different loading

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91-8449264274;+919473959436

E-mail address:kcnkumar@ymail.com, tushar.tandon93@gmail.com.

2214-7853 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the conference committee members of the 4th International conference on Materials Processing
and Characterization.
doi:10.1016/j.matpr.2015.07.244
 Tushar Tandon et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 2 (2015) 2246 2255 2247

conditions. The load cycles reduce the service life and the presence of static and dynamic loads have an adverse
effect on the performance of the radar antenna structure installed on different platforms. Structural analysis is the
most common application of the finite element method. The term structural (or structure) implies not only civil
engineering structures such as bridges and buildings, but also used in naval, aeronautical, and mechanical structures
such as ship hulls, aircraft bodies, and machine housings, as well as mechanical components such as pistons,
machine parts, and tools. The word RADAR is an acronym coined in 1942 (II world war) by U.S Navy for Radio
Detection and Ranging. It is basically a means of gathering information about distant objects or targets by sending
electromagnetic waves at them and analysing reflected waves or the echo signals [1]. The design and testing
requirements which have to be satisfied for every radar structure that pretends to be used by defence are stated in
[2]. Those of interest for this work can be subdivided in two categories: dimensional and mass requirements and
structural requirements. The first one states that each mounting platform must have a nominal length 2600 mm and
width of 2400 mm per side. The second one specifies some design criteria which have to be met in order to avoid
transportation vibration. The dimensions of Aluminium alloys 6061-T6 is suggested for the main structure although
it is possible to use other materials with similar yield stress. In addition [3], [4] the guidelines for vibration
qualification test are presented.
The following are a few factors affecting its operation:
x The wind speed, which varies time to time and natural calamities, which are uncertain and unpredictable.
x The humidity at coastal areas is higher than that in plains, this humidity contains larger amount of salt
which corrodes the antenna mounting base.
x In some coastal areas near the poles where low temperature causes improper functioning of the RADAR
antenna mounting base due to the formation of ice on its body.

1.1. Assumptions

The following assumptions are made in this study

x The joint between the antenna and the base is frictional; the joint assumed is in between the rotating base
and the mounting base of the RADAR.
x In the analysis, force due to antenna weight is considered as 250N. This force is taken into consideration
due to the accessories that are mounted on the antenna.
x Rotating speed of antenna base is 25-40 RPM; it varies according to its area of application and in this study
the rotational speed is considered as 25 RPM.

2. Materials and Method

Material selection in any designing process or mechanical study plays an important role in understanding the
adaptability and feasibility of the design to carry out its intended function efficiently and effectively. The material
selection in our study is mainly based on the following factors. They are corrosion resistance, resistance to chemical
attack, impact strength, and fatigue strength and with the above parameters light weight is most important. In this
study the following materials are selected and they are shown in table 1 to Table 4, which satisfies the above
material selection criteria.

2.1. Aluminium 6061-T6

Aluminum alloys are widely used in modern aerospace and military applications. Aluminum alloys are valuable
because they have a high strength-to-weight ratio. Aluminum alloys are corrosion resistant and comparatively easy
to fabricate. The outstanding characteristic of aluminum is its lightweight. Among the aluminum alloys, Aluminium
alloy 6061 is a medium to high strength heat-treatable alloy with strength higher than 6005A. It has very good
corrosion resistance and very good weldability although reduced strength in the weld zone. It has medium fatigue
strength. In conventional materials Al 6061-T6 is considered and its material properties are given in table 1.
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Table 1: Material Properties of Al 6061-T6 [5]

Properties of Al-6061-T6
Ultimate
Young's Ultimate Tensile
yield Density
Material Modulus Poisson's ratio strength
strength g/cm3
GPa MPa
MPa
Al-6061-T6 68.9 0.33 310 276 2.7

2.2. Titanium Alloys

Titanium alloys are mainly used in aerospace and military application due to their light weight, high strength and
high temperature application. The following titanium alloys were used in this study, the properties of these alloys
are shown in the table 2.

Table 2: Titanium Alloys Material Properties

Properties Titanium Alloys
Material Young's Shear Poisson's Ultimate Tensile Ultimate Yield Density
Modulus Modulud Ratio strength strength g/cm3
GPa GPa MPa MPa
Ti6AL-4V 96 35.294 0.36 1070 930 4.62
Ti6242S 118 44.5 0.325 1110 1050 4.54

2.3. Properties of CFRP

The material properties of carbon fibre composite (CFRP), (Fiber-Unidirectional Carbon Fiber and Resin-RTM
120/HY 2954) used are listed in Table 3 and Table 4. The laminate orientation of carbon fibers: the 0 degree plies
are running parallel to the loading direction and laminate stacking is as shown in Table 5.

Table 3: Stiffness properties of CFRP

Youngs modulus (GPa) Rigidity modulus Poissons Ratio Density
(GPa) (gm/cc)
E11 E22 G12 v12
120 8 3 0.32 1.45

Table 4: Strength properties of CFRP

Tensile Strength Compressive Strength In-plane shear Strength Inter Laminar Strength
(MPa)
Strength (Mpa) (MPa) (MPa)
Xt Xc S ILS
Ultimate 585 494 46.0 40.00
Limit 390 329 30.6 26.67

Table 5: Stacking sequence of stiffened panel

Thk. No.of
Component Stacking sequence Material
(mm) Layers
RADAR [45/-45/0/90/90/0/-
2.72/ 3.0 8 CFRP
ANTENNA BASE 45/45]
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3. Modelling and analysis

A 3 dimensional CAD model is generated using Solid Edge V19. The span of Radar antenna mounting base is
considered as 500mm and outer and inner diameter of rotating base and fixed base of 80mm and 150mm were
assumed and they are shown in figure 1 and figure 2. The 3 dimensional CAD model was imported into ANSYS
14.0, the materials property were assigned and meshing was done.Further boundary conditions were applied and the
meshed model is shown in figure 3.

Fig. 1. Three View (2D)

Fig. 2. Isometric View (3D)

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Fig. 3. Meshed Model

3. Results and Discussion

Static stress analysis were carried out for Coastal RADAR mounting base. The meshed models were analysed for
both conventional and composite materials. The results obtained are as follows:

Al 6061-T6 isgenerally used in radar antenna accessories, which is being manufactured for more than 2 decades.
The minimum and maximum deformation was found to be 0.003 mm and 0.027 mm respectively, which is shown in
the figure 4 and minimum and maximum von-Mises stress were found to be 0.0045 MPa and 73.685 MPa
respectively, which is shown in the figure 4.For the given boundary conditions, the findings show that there will be a
failure of antenna mounting base under extreme conditions.

Fig. 4.Total Deformation for Al 6061-T6

 Tushar Tandon et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 2 (2015) 2246 2255 2251

Fig. 5.Von-MisesStressesfor Al 6061-T6

Ti6Al-4V are aircraft graded materials generally used for the components which are subjected to high stress life and
temperature conditions. In this study it is found that the maximum and minimum deformations are0.0023 mm and
0.021 mm respectively. Also the maximum and minimum von-Mises stresses were found to be 0.0042 MPa and
99.201 MPa. From the figure 6 and 7 it is also observed that at the end points/tip stresses and deformations are more.

Fig. 6.Total Deformation for Ti6Al-4V

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Ti6242S is majorly used in gas turbine engines due to their high melting points and resistance to corrosion and
oxidation. When this material was analysed for the RADAR antenna mounting base the minimumand
maximumdeformationswere 0.0019 mm and 0.017 mm and the stresses were found to be 0.0056 MPa and 126.82
MPa. These results areshown in figure 8 and 9. Here also it was found that deformation and maximum stress act at
the ends of the RADAR antenna mounting base.

Fig. 7. Von-Mises Stresses for Ti6Al-4V

Fig. 8.Total Deformation for Ti6242S

 Tushar Tandon et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 2 (2015) 2246 2255 2253

Finally, advanced material such as CFRPs were checked for its capabilities similar to the above material boundary
conditions. It was found that the minimum and maximum deformations were 0.001 mm and 0.0013 mm
respectively, whereas the stresses were 0.00088 MPa and 47.3 MPa respectively These materials are more promising
due to their strength to weight ratio, and the results show that the deformation and stresses are minimum as
compared to other materials shown in figure 10.

Fig. 9.Von - Mises Stresses for Ti6242S

Fig. 10. Total Deformation and Von - Mises Stresses for CFRP
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The results are shown in table 6 and graphs plotted for material properties vs maximum stress, minimum stress. Also
materials with total deformation were plotted as shown in figure 11, 12 and 13 respectively. It was found that
composite materials can be used for the further analysis.

Table 6: Results
von-Mises Stresses (MPa) Total Deformation (mm)
Material
Minimum Maximum Minimum Maximum
Aluminium 6061-T6 0.0045 73.685 0.003 0.027
Ti6AL-4V 0.0042 99.201 0.0023 0.021
Ti6242S 0.0056 126.82 0.0019 0.017
CFRP 0.00088 47.3 0.001 0.0013

Fig. 11: Graph of von Mises Stresses Vs Different Materials

Fig. 12: Graph of minimum von Mises Stresses Vs Different Materials

 Tushar Tandon et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 2 (2015) 2246 2255 2255

Fig. 13: Graph of Total Deformation Vs Different Materials

4. Conclusion

The radar stress analysis is focussed on the parameters affecting the performance of the radar antenna mounting
base. In this study the availability of datais limited because radar comes under defence equipment category. It is
found that composite materials are the best materials for the radar antenna mounting base as compared to
conventional materials. Even though these materials has got their own advantages and limitations,there usage has
been increasing over the years. This analysis data can be used further for mechanical vibrational analyses and fail
safe designing in the future.

References

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