Magneto-Hydrodynamic Antenna Design and Development Analysis with prototype

A new class of antenna based on magnetohydrodynamic technique is presented. Magnetohydrodynamic Antenna, using electrically conducting fluid, such as NaCl solution under controlled electromagnetic fields is formulated and developed. Fluid resonator volume and electric field with magnetic field decides the resonant frequency and return loss respectively to make the antenna tuneable in the frequency range 4.5 to 9 GHz. The Maxwell’s equations, Navier Stokes equations and equations of mass conservation for the conducting fluid and field have been set up. These are expressed as partial differential equations for the stream function electric and magnetic fields, these equations are first order in time. By discretizing these equations, we are able to numerically evaluate velocity field of the fluid in the near field region and electromagnetic field in the far field region. We propose to design, develop, formulate and fabricate an prototype MHD antenna [1-3]. Formulations of a rotating fluid frame, evolution of pointing vector, permeability and permittivity of MHD antenna have been worked out. Proposed work presents tuning mechanism of resonant frequency and dielectric constant for frequency agility and configurability. Measured results of prototype antenna possess return loss up to -51.1dB at 8.59 GHz resonant frequency. And simulated resonant frequency comes out to be10.5GHz. KeywordsFrequency agility, reconfigurability, MHD, radiation pattern, saline water.