Reliability-Based Multidisciplinary Design of Reflector Antennas with Material Uncertainty

Reliability-based design optimization method has been widely utilized in the design of engineering structures. For reflector antennas, the uncertainty existing in the structure will lead to deterioration of antenna electromagnetic (EM) performances. However, there is few researches about the reliability-based design of antenna considering the EM performances. In this paper, a multidisciplinary reliability index is introduced, then a reliability-based multidisciplinary design optimization (RMDO) method is developed. An 8 m diameter reflector antenna is investigated to demonstrate the validity and efficiency of the proposed method. The results show that the new method can produce more reliable design compared with deterministic design.