Development of a Metamaterial Honeycomb Structure for Radar Absorbing Materials

Radar is a sensitive detection tool that uses electromagnetic radio waves to determine the position and motion of objects. Since its development, the methods for reducing radar wave reflections have been explored to improve stealth technology. One of the methods for reducing radar reflection is coating the aircraft using radar absorbing metamaterial. This research studies the radar absorption properties of a metamaterial honeycomb structure which has gradient protruded inner walls that are made of a radar absorbing material fabricated of Carbon Nanotube (CNT) Iron Oxide composite. The CNT Iron Oxide material was first prepared, then EMI measurement was conducted to obtain the permeability and permittivity values of the material. Then, the effect of changing the geometrical parameters of the honeycomb structure (size, height, thickness, and tilted angle) on the radar absorption properties has been simulated using Multi-Physics COMSOL. Simulation results showed that the optimum structure can absorb more than 90% of the radar incident waves in X-band frequencies and can reach a RL peak value of −52 dB.