Low-Cost Radar Cross-Section Measurement With a Resin-Made Model Coated With Conductive Paste

*This work has been submitted to the IEEE for possible publication. Copyright may be transferred without notice, after which this version may no longer be accessible. This article is intended to provide practical information about development of a cost-effective test model to achieve low-cost radar cross-section (RCS) measurement. To reduce the manufacturing cost of a model, two major possible approaches are: replacing the molding material with inexpensive one, and measuring a scaled-down model with a higher operating frequency. In this study, the former was achieved by using a resin-made model coated with conductive paste to imitate a complete metallic model. According to the scaling laws, the entire geometry, including the surface roughness of the model owing to the conductive paint, must be properly scaled down. As this roughness scaling is practically infeasible, we experimentally prove that the shape-only scaling is valid without the roughness scaling, provided that appropriate molding material is selected. As a preliminary study, two types of polyurethane resin with different density were tested for their suitability of the RCS measurement, and the resin with higher density was shown to be appropriate for the RCS test model. Based on this preliminary study, 1/20- and 1/40-scale aircraft models made with aluminum or polyurethane resin were manufactured, and their RCS were measured to demonstrate that the almost equivalent RCS patterns can be obtained; therefore, low-cost RCS testing was achieved by the resin-made scaled model.</p