Electromagnetic modeling of the effect of plasma sheath on radar signatures of hypersonic targets

This master's thesis investigates how plasma sheaths generated during hypersonic flight impact the radar signatures (RCS and BRCS) of targets. Combining two-temperature computational fluid dynamics (hy2Foam) with finite-difference time-domain electromagnetic simulations (meep), the study evaluates radar attenuation, distortion, scattering over rough surfaces, and realistic plasma effects on a spherical projectile. The findings show that distortion of pulse-compressed signals is generally negligible, and while low-frequency (<1 GHz) radar signatures can either increase or decrease depending on frequency, the plasma sheath has minor effects above 1 GHz for targets traveling below 3 km/s.