This paper presents a new and original approach for computing the high-frequency radar cross section (RCS) of complex radar targets in real time with a 3-D graphics workstation. The aircraft is modeled with I-DEAS solid modeling software using a parametric surface approach. High-frequency RCS is obtained through physical optics (PO), method of equivalent currents (MEC), physical theory of diffraction (PTD), and impedance boundary condition (IBC). This method is based on a new and original implementation of high-frequency techniques which the authors have called graphical electromagnetic computing (GRECO). A graphical processing approach of an image of the target at the workstation screen is used to identify the surfaces of the target visible from the radar viewpoint and obtain the unit normal at each point. High-frequency approximations to RCS prediction are then easily computed from the knowledge of the unit normal at the illuminated surfaces of the target. The image of the target at the workstation screen (to be processed by GRECO) can be potentially obtained in real time from the I-DEAS geometric model using the 3-D graphics hardware accelerator of the workstation. Therefore, CPU time for RCS prediction is spent only on the electromagnetic part of the computation, while the more time-consuming geometric model manipulations are left to the graphics hardware. This hybrid graphic-electromagnetic computing (GRECO) results in real-time RCS prediction for complex radar targets.
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