Ship EDF is a computer aided design SW package that integrates in a seamless framework a set of electromagnetic computation modules capable of simulating all parameters needed for the EMC and Radar Signature analysis of ships. Such environment is particularly suited to enable concurrent analyses related to the different point of view of the ship/equipment. The product is aimed at shipbuilding industries, Military study centres, equipment manufacturers, ship system integration companies. The system development started in 1982 and includes the CAD/Modelling section, the electromagnetic solution algorithms completely developed and widely validated by IDS, the post processing tools devoted to the best and efficient presentation of output results.

Ship-EDF Overview

Including two concurrent analysis sections, namely:

SEMP : Ship ElectroMagnetic Prediction. TLC/Radar/EW Antenna Siting and Performance Analysis on metallic and non-metallic ship structures: antenna radiation patterns, antenna impedance, inter antenna coupling and electromagnetic interference, radiation hazard on board (on deck, below deck).

SSP : Ship Signature Prediction. Radar Signature Reduction and Control: RCS diagrams, identification of scattering contributors and centres distribution, statistical behaviour. Concurrent approach is allowed thanks to:

Integrated modelling environment. The geometrical and e.m. mesh ship models are performed under a unified CAD/Meshing environment, easily interfaceable to naval architects CAD tools.

Ship Data Archive for the automatic organisation of analyses data and results, allowing the ship configuration control at every project stage

Advanced electromagnetic solvers. The core of the system includes state-of-the-art simulation techniques, capable of realistic e.m. computations. The Ship EDF e.m. modules have been completely developed by IDS since 1982, and are thoroughly validated on real ship applications.

SHIP EDF User Friendly Electromagnetic Project Interface

Ship EDF allows the user the management and control of the electromagnetic simulation study by means of a suitable user front end interface which guides along the simulation procedure.

The system allows the storing of ship platform and related combat system data in organised archives. Such archives can be queried by the user to check on project data and analysis performed. The simulation analysis data are stored in the archives according to the decomposition of the analyses into classes.

A suitable CAD based environment is embedded in the framework, devoted to importing ship drawings and/or build CAD structures, including the set of specialised electromagnetic mesher tool needed to construct the ship models geometry according to the electromagnetic solvers used in the different analyses.

Ship EDF/SEMP: The EMC/Antenna module

EMC/EMI analysis of all aspects of Ship/Antenna integrated system, for metallic, non metallic, and hybrid metallic/composite ships

Ship Modelling over all the frequency spectrum of modern naval units

Antenna Modelling covering all the system types in use on modern ships, for the application to TLC/HF/V/UHF, Radar/Search, Radar/FCS, IFF, EW, SATCOM, Navigation equipment .

Radiation Hazard (HERO, HERP, HERF, HERE, HERA) assessment; computation of near field distribution and plotting of contour limits on ship scale drawings for a direct use by operators;

Communications Coverage and antenna pattern computation on the 3D solid to identify the complete antenna performance for line of sight, ground and sky wave propagation modes

Interference/EMI assessment for TLC/Radar/EW, based on inter antenna coupling computation and signal processing equipment features;

Radar processing for: false echoes identification and occurrence, off boresight angle errors extraction, radar range loss due to structure masking and others

Physical insight into propagation phenomena suited for results interpretation: plot of currents induced on ship by transmitting communication antennas, radar emission ray tracing paths visualisation on ship 3D CAD

Operative evaluation of ship e.m. performance based on processing including: statistics, system performance index evaluation, comparisons with requirements for coverage and interference.

Ship-EDF/SSP: The SIGNATURE module

RCS and related parameters analysis including the scattering mechanisms simulations from low (UHF) to high (mm wave) frequencies; the whole spectrum of interest for modern ship survivability items can be analysed, and modelling item is performed on the basis of a categorisation of the ship into parts and equipment subsystems

Hot spots identification on ship structures allowing the immediate, interactive display of major scattering centres (the hot spots) directly on the mesh model within the CAD environment

Sea multipath effects can be included in the analysis, by taking into account of sea roughness;

RAM/RAS panels modelling, concerning dielectric or magnetic material properties;

SAR/ISAR two-dimensional images computation and processing;

Multiple interactions coming from contributions of different structure parts