Gaining Confidence In EM Predictions For Naval Design
Electromagnetic Interference and Compatibility (EMI/EMC) is not a new technology or discipline. It has been with us since the discovery of electromagnetic (EM) energy. But, in the late 1960s, the US Navy recognized the need of controlling EMI/EMC and published the first military standard rather than simply specifying a compromised set of EMC requirements for each individual piece of equipment. This was because the ordinary EMC community did not have the shipboard EM environment to deal with and EMC engineers were not familiar with the real shipboard EM environment.
Electromagnetic Interference and Compatibility has since become one of the major contributors to naval mission degradation due to the growing use of electronics on board naval ships and their increasing performance and requirements. Topside design and integration efforts are used to reduce EMI/EMC problems. When designing a ship, the main goal is to maximize the overall ship performance, particularly during the topside design process, while meeting the mission requirements.
Reliable EM predictions are very important in a naval platform's topside design and they should also be accompanied by in the field measurements. In the IDS concept, validation of the software tools leads to an increased confidence in EM predictions and, in general, although verification measurements will remain necessary, the number of measurements can probably be reduced.
To be effective, prediction software should combine the use of state-of-the-art computational electromagnetic solvers and specific features for concurrent design and equipment performance assessment in an integrated framework to provide a unified environment for electromagnetic design. In addition, the measurement tools must be effective and must be combined with specific software that is able to store, process and synthetize all acquisitions.
IDS has designed and developed a validated and comprehensive modular software system capable of supporting concurrent electromagnetic design and assisting the optimization of naval platforms: the Ship EDF framework. It can predict the EM environment above and below the deck of military vessels providing support in solving electromagnetic compatibility (EMC).