Thinning curved surface arrays: application of the genetic algorithm (GA)

Conformal arrays are widely used in advanced aircrafts because of their aerodynamic performance. However, the conformal arrays involve lots of array elements, moreover, their peak sidelobe levels of radiation pattern are relatively high, which is adverse to the engineering application. Focusing on the above problems, this paper applies the genetic algorithm to thin the array elements of the typical conformal arrays (i.e. curved surface arrays), with the working states of elements as the optimizing variables. The simulation results show that this method not only reduce the array elements, but also lower the peak sidelobe levels of the curved surface arrays down effectively.