Prediction of RF Signal Degradation and its Improvement through Hypersonic Plasma Sheath using dsmcFoam

The transmission and degradation of RF signals through the plasma sheath surrounding the hypersonic air vehicle is investigated using a Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) based flow solver. The dsmcFoam solver in the OpenFoam library is used to simulate the flow around hypersonic bodies to obtain flow field properties to aid in the calculations of signal degradation. The study of RF signal degradation and the viability of communications for hypersonic vehicles are of great importance for the future of aerospace as hypersonic travel and warfare are becoming technologically possible. Integration over the output electron number density profile yields values for attenuation that drop below 100 decibels in the transmission window of 10 to 30 GHz. Outside of this transmission window, attenuation and phase shift are high and indicate poor chance of viable communication. If signal degradation models can be verified and improved with flight data, wind tunnel data or plasma simulation studies, these results suggest that vital radar and satellite communications are possible through the plasma sheath and can be decoded using accurately predicted degradation values.