| Home |
| Search |
| Today's Posts |
|
#2
|
|||
|
|||
|
W. Watson wrote:
There's a figure at the bottom of http://www.tpub.com/neets/book10/42.htm that shows current distribution on an antenna. Is there some book or source that describes how figures B and C and produced? A lot of authors of antenna and electromagnetics texts avoid the issue. There's a decent analysis in King, Mimno, and Wing, _Transmission Lines, Antennas, and Waveguides_. The problem is much more difficult when the antenna is longer than a half wavelength or when the wire diameter becomes significant. In those cases, a much more complex calculation is necessary, with only approximate results being available from closed form solutions. Numerical solution of a triple integral equation is the method usually used. That approach is necessary when there are nearby current-carrying conductors, since that alters the current distribution in ways which are usually too complex for other methods. A brief discussion of several methods of approaching the problem can be found in Sec. 14.11, "The Cylindrical Antenna Problem", in Jordan and Balmain, _Electromagnetic Waves and Radiating Systems". I'm guessing that one starts with an open ended transmission line, and looks at how the E and B fields are distributed along it. Then one peels the open end back until the two lines are pointing away from one another. One then ends up with E fields pretty much in a plane directed from one point on one side of the wire to the similar point on the other wire. Similarly the B fields encircle each wire. On one side they have a CC direction and the other a CC direction (looking in the direction of the current). Using a transmission line as an analogy for antenna operation works just well enough to be dangerous. While it's a way to get an intuitive understanding of antenna operation, taking it too far can lead to some erroneous conclusions. One fundamental limitation is that classical analysis of a transmission line depends on the assumption that no radiation occurs, and that's certainly not the case for an antenna. As a separate item, it would also seem that for a transmission line that is open ended the current flowing in one wire induces a current to flow in the opposite direction in the other wire. That is the current flows in the one wire because it does so by induction rather than it being physically part of the other wire. Yes, that's correct. If you assume that the entire field from one wire couples to the other, which is strictly true for coax and approximately true for twinlead, it follows from Ampere's law that the current on one wire must be equal and opposite that on the other. This assumption of field coupling isn't true for an antenna, although coupling does indeed exist and it does have a profound effect on the currents. Roy Lewallen, W7EL |
| Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
| Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads
|
||||
| Thread | Forum | |||
| swr question | Antenna | |||
| FCC: Broadband Power Line Systems | Policy | |||
| Reactive musings | Antenna | |||
| Mobile Ant L match ? | Antenna | |||
| EH Antenna Revisited | Antenna | |||