{"id":16977,"date":"2019-11-14T15:37:25","date_gmt":"2019-11-14T15:37:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/?p=16977"},"modified":"2020-06-09T12:39:51","modified_gmt":"2020-06-09T12:39:51","slug":"undergoing-radio-frequency-testing-hertz-chamber","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/undergoing-radio-frequency-testing-hertz-chamber\/","title":{"rendered":"Undergoing radio-frequency testing in Hertz chamber"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

An Airbus A340 aircraft has 2m-diameter nose is seen in ESA\u2019s Hertz chamber, undergoing radio-frequency testing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had a rare gap in our test schedule and were able to accommodate a commercial customer,\u201d explains ESA antenna engineer Eric Van Der Houwen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSPECTO Aerospace<\/a>\u00a0works on repairing damaged structural aircraft parts like radomes \u2013 radar domes \u2013 found on the noses of aircraft, which protect forward-looking weather radar and other equipment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But before any repaired radome can be returned to flight it needs radio frequency testing to confirm the repair has been a success and the structure is performing acceptably.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A radome can be damaged in various ways, including lightning strikes, bird strikes or due to hail erosion. The repair process needs to return the radome \u2013 an aramid fibre honeycomb composite sandwich structure \u2013 to be high mechanically stiff and aerodynamically smooth \u2013 while also ensuring its desired radio-frequency (RF) performance remains intact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSometimes a repaired radome can look good but might not perform so well in RF terms,\u201d adds Eric. \u201cIt might be that the radome structure is absorbing too much RF energy, or triggering signal reflections or interactions that alter the shape of what should be a forward-looking signal. In this particular case, this radome requires a \u2018side lobe level test\u2019 \u2013 checking its sideways emissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo we first of all measure the antenna pattern and energy level without the radome and then with the radome to see how much these values change. Finally we again test the antenna without the radome, to make sure our results match on a reliable basis.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part of ESA\u2019s technical heart in the Netherlands, the metal-walled\u00a0\u2018Hybrid European Radio Frequency and Antenna Test Zone\u2019<\/a>\u00a0chamber is shut off from all external influences. Its internal walls are studded with radio-absorbing \u2018anechoic\u2019 foam pyramids, allowing radio-frequency testing without any distorting reflections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hertz chamber carried out a rapid test campaign for the company, with the nose cone \u2013 which fits onto both Airbus A330 and A340 aircraft \u2013 into and out of ESA\u2019s\u00a0ESTEC<\/a>\u00a0technical centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands in a single day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cESA is one of our reliable partners for specific aircraft parts testing,\u201d remarks Jeroen Mast, managing director of SPECTO. \u201cOur in-house test facility is able to perform the standard transmission efficiency tests for aircraft radomes, with ESA\u2019s anechoic test facilities offering a valuable add-on to our services.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ESA\u2019s test facilities at the service of all Agency missions and Member States are supported through ESA\u2019s Basic Activities. At the\u00a0Space19+<\/a>\u00a0Council of Ministers in Seville, Spain on 27-28 November, ESA will press for an increase in Basic Activities to maintain and develop its test facilities and general infrastructure.<\/p>\n
","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An Airbus A340 aircraft has 2m-diameter nose is seen in ESA\u2019s Hertz chamber, undergoing radio-frequency testing. \u201cWe had a rare gap in our test schedule and were able to accommodate a commercial customer,\u201d explains ESA antenna engineer Eric Van Der Houwen. \u201cSPECTO Aerospace\u00a0works on repairing damaged structural aircraft parts like radomes \u2013 radar domes \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16978,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","category-space-news"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/esa-image.jpg",750,500,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/esa-image-200x200.jpg",200,200,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/esa-image-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/esa-image.jpg",750,500,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/esa-image.jpg",750,500,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/esa-image.jpg",750,500,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/esa-image.jpg",750,500,false],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/esa-image.jpg",750,500,false],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/esa-image.jpg",750,500,false],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/esa-image.jpg",600,400,false],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/esa-image.jpg",600,400,false],"newspaper-x-single-post":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/esa-image-750x490.jpg",750,490,true],"newspaper-x-recent-post-big":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/esa-image-550x360.jpg",550,360,true],"newspaper-x-recent-post-list-image":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/esa-image-95x65.jpg",95,65,true],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/esa-image.jpg",640,427,false],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/esa-image.jpg",96,64,false],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/esa-image.jpg",150,100,false]},"author_info":{"info":["RevoScience"]},"category_info":"Research<\/a> Space\/ AstroPhysics<\/a>","tag_info":"Space\/ AstroPhysics","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}