This article was downloaded by: [RWTH Aachen University]

On: 02 May 2014, At: 06:03

Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House,
37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK
International Journal of Electronics
Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information:
http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tetn20
Current distribution and impedance of monopole
antenna on lossy ground
A. HIZAL
a
a
Electronic and Electrical Engineering Department , University of Birmingham B15 2TT ,
England
Published online: 11 Feb 2011.
To cite this article: A. HIZAL (1974) Current distribution and impedance of monopole antenna on lossy ground, International
Journal of Electronics, 37:1, 49-60, DOI: 10.1080/00207217408900495
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00207217408900495
PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE
Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the Content) contained
in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no
representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the
Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and
are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and
should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for
any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever
or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of
the Content.
This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic
reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any
form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://
www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions
INT. J. ELECTRONICS, 1974, VOL. 37, SO. 1, 49-60
Current distribution and impedance of monopole antenna
on lossy ground
A. HIZAL
Electronic and Electrical Engineering Department,
University of Birmingham B15 2TT, England
[Received 20 June 19731
A Hnllen'a type integral equation is solved by the method of moments with aub-
seetionsl basis and parobolie expansion functions. Tho effect of the ground is taken
into account by reflection-coefficient spproximation. A vsriationnl expression ia
derived for the impedsnoo changes resulting from the presence of a loaey ground.
Numorieal maults are presented for the current diatributian and impednnee changes
of qunrtcr.weve vorticnl antennas on an inhomogonaous wet ground at I MHz and
5 MHz as a function of thickness and elevation of antennos.
I . introduction
The current distribution of a vertically polarized dipole is significantly
affected by t he presence of a lossy ground plane. A knowledge of the t rue
current distribution is required for accurate field and impedance calculations.
For certain ranges of the parameters t he sinusoidal current distribution can
be used. Hansen (1972) and Olsen and Chang (1971) have used sinusoidal
current distribution for half-wave dipoles on lossy grounds for field and
impedance calculations, respectively. The measured dat a presented by Rashid
(1970) shows t hat a t high frequencies (60 MHz) the current distribution of a
half-wave dipole on a lossy ground is nearly sinusoidal and as the frequency
is decreased (15 MHz) i t is significantly distorted. Chang and Wait (1970)
have computed t he current distribution of half-wave dipoles on lossy grounds
a t 100 MHz and 600 31. H~ as a function of elevation. The results indicate
t hat , apart from the proximity effect (t he current a t t he lower part of t he
ant enna is higher than t hat in t he upper part ) which is significant when the
antenna is close t o t he ground, the real part of t he cutrent distribution is
close t o a sinusoidal function but t he imaginary part is significantly distorted,
especially near t he feeding point.
For a quarter-wave ant enna the current distribution might be expected
t o be similar t o half of a sinusoid. Although numerical results based on an
integral equation solution are available (Miller el al. 1072) for the radiation
pattern of quarter-wave antennas on lossy grounds, no extensive numerical
results are previously reported for the current distribution and impedance
of quarter-wave antennas on lossy grounds. This might be expected since
in practice snch antennas are often incorporated with an earthing.system
so t hat a good image of t he antenna is formed. However, in certain applica-
tions such as multi-beam receiving arrays (Starbuck 1969) an efficient earth-
ing system can be uneconomical. Also in such systems, if one accounts for
t he changes in t he impedance and pattern characteristics of the array in t he
presence of a lossy ground, t he necessity of an earthing system can be
J. E. I n
D
o
w
n
l
o
a
d
e
d

b
y

[
R
W
T
H

A
a
c
h
e
n

U
n
i
v
e
r
s
i
t
y
]

a
t

0
6
:
0
3

0
2

M
a
y

2
0
1
4

eliminated. I n this case, however, t he coverage a t low angles of elevation
needs improvement by other arrangements such as using elevated-feed
antennas or elevating the ant enna itself.
The present. paper is nlotivated by t he lack of numerical results showing
the effect of lossy grounds on t he current distribution and impedance of
quarter-wave antennas. The individual elements of t he formulation used in
this paper are urell known. Therefore no cl ai n~ is made with regard t o t he
originality of t he theoretical approach used in t he formulation. However,
the way in which t he well known techniques are combined haa not been
previously reported.
2. Theory
2.1. Current dislribufion
111 this paper SI units are used and only time dependence i&assumed t o
be exp (iwt). The geometry of the problem is shown in fig. I . The theory
is based on a method-of-moments solution of a Hallen's t ype integral equation
incorporated with t he reflection-coefficient method discussed by hfiller el nl.
(1972).
Fig. 1
Geometry of the problem and variation of the ground conductivity
o=10+20 exp (-IOyld,) mmho/m, OSySd,
o= 10 mmholm, y >,do
' =20mmhol m
Miller el nl. (1972) have solved Pocklington's t ype integral equation (Tesche
1972) by invoking t hc usual thin wire approxinlation. The electric field
produced by each segment of the ant enna is combined with t he reflection-
coefficient-weighted electric field produced by t he image segment. The
current distribution on a segment is expressed by a trigonometric series with
three terms. The method of Chang and Wait (1970) is t he most rigorous
approach t o t he present problem. However, an extensive amount of computer
time is reqyired as a result of numerical integrations involved in obtaining t he
D
o
w
n
l
o
a
d
e
d

b
y

[
R
W
T
H

A
a
c
h
e
n

U
n
i
v
e
r
s
i
t
y
]

a
t

0
6
:
0
3

0
2

M
a
y

2
0
1
4

Current distribution and impedance of monopole antenna 5 1
Green's function for a given ground. I n the reflection-coefficient method the
Green's function is obtained from a simple expression. Chang and Wait
(1970) have used also the method of Ma and Walters (1969) incorporated with
the five-term Chang-King model of two collinear antennas. I n this method
t he image current distribution is weighted by the reflection coefficient for
normal incidence : hence it is a coarse degree of approxinlation since a single
reflection coefficient is used for the entire antenna.
Apparently the solntion of a Hallen's type integral equation incorporated
with t he reflection-coefficient method is not available. Here we solve such
an equation using the method of moments with sub-sectional basis. For the
expansion functions we use parabolic functions following the method of Chang
and Wait (1970).
A Hallen's type integral equation for N, coupled antennas whose radii are
much less than the wavelength can be written as
where Iq(zQ') is the unknown cnrrent distribution of the qth antenna,
G,,(r,, 2,') is the Green's function for the pt h antenna and P,,(z,) is the
excitation function of the pt h antenna. According t o the reflection-coefficient
approximation the Green's function is given by (hliller el al. 1972) : (below,
k is the free-space propagation coefficient)
where
R,,* = [(d, 5dq +z, TZ,')~ + b p 2 ] l l ~ (3)
R,(~,,)=(cos a,,-Z,)/(cos O,,+Z,) (4)
R,(O,,) is the reflection coefficient, 2, is t he surface impedance of a lossy
ground which is normalized t o the intrinsic impedance of free-space and
cos OD, = (d, + dq + z, + z,,')/R,,- ( 5)
The excitation function, for a delta-function type voltage source applied at
z P = - I,, is given by
where B, and C, are unknown constants.
The solution of eqn. ( I ) is facilitated by following the scheme of Chang
(IOGl), Chang and King (1968) and Chang and Wait (1970). We divide the
qth ant.enna into Nq segments of equal length and represent the current on
each segmcnt by a polynomial of degree three. Thus we set
D
o
w
n
l
o
a
d
e
d

b
y

[
R
W
T
H

A
a
c
h
e
n

U
n
i
v
e
r
s
i
t
y
]

a
t

0
6
:
0
3

0
2

M
a
y

2
0
1
4

The unknown currents are Iqj, j = 2, 3, ..., 21%. The currents a t zql= -hq
and z,, tS.+l=h,, are equated t o zero as demanded by the boundary condi-
tions. It should be noticed t hat these boundary conditions depend merely
on the end geometry of the antennu. For an clectricnlly thin antenna or a
hollow-tube with very thin walls the current a t the ends of the antenna can
be taken as zero. The unknown coefficients a,,, s= 1, 2, 8, may be expressed
in terms of the unknown currents I,), j = 2, 3, ..., 2Xq, hy evaluating eqn. (9)
a t z q ' =z,, j;l', zqjl and %, j+l'.
Thus,
aq2=Lq-2(41q, ,+1+*Iq, ,-l--Iqj) (10 c )
Substituting eqns. (10a-c) into eqn. (9) then eqn. (9) into eqn. ( I ) and mani-
pulat,ing with the resulting terms, one obtains
for m = 2, 4, . .., 21\7,, and
for ?n = 3, 5 , ..., 2Np - I. Above, v=z/L,.
The unknown coefficients B,, and C,, i n eqn. (6) are determined from the
boundary conditions a t the ends of the antenna. To include H,, and C,, into
the solution we assume t hat I,,= B,6,, and 1,. ,,;+,=C,S,,, where 6,,, is the
Kronecker's delta Thus eqn. ( I I ) becomes
We set
z, , , =-hJ, +(n-I)L, , n = l , 2 , ..., N, , (16)
as the sample points t o convert eqn. (14) into a set of linear algebraic equa-
tions. The nnmber of complex equations (A',,) is given by
n'.
A',,= (2hT,,+ I )
p-1
D
o
w
n
l
o
a
d
e
d

b
y

[
R
W
T
H

A
a
c
h
e
n

U
n
i
v
e
r
s
i
t
y
]

a
t

0
6
:
0
3

0
2

M
a
y

2
0
1
4

Ctcrrenl dislribulion und impednnce o/ monopole anlenna 53
whcre :V,, is t he number of segments for t he pt h ant enna, The inversion of
cqn. ( 14) gives t he unknown currents a t three points on each segment and
also B,, and C,,. 'I'o calculate the current a t any point on the qth antenna
we substitute eqns. ( I 0 n-c) with I , , = I , , ,.vq,l =0 into eqn. (!I).
2.2. Impedance
The numerical procedure described ubovc yields t he admittances. I f we
are concerned with an ant enna array with more t han few clements, a con-
siderably large amount of computer time is required in order to solve the
complete array as coupled antennas. In such applicat.ions it is more practical
t o solve fcw elements of t he nrray as coupled antennrrs in order t o obtain a
good estimate of t he current distribution. The c omp~~t e d current distribution
can then bc used to calculate t he self and mutual impedances. For this
purpose a variationill expression bused on the induced EMF neth hod may be
~~s e t l . ' Following, tlic prescription of t he induced EhIF method the mutual
impedance between t wo antennas is given by (Olsen and Chang 19; I )
where I,,, and I,, are t he feed currents and
is t he kernel of the equation, which also appears in the integral equation
used by hliller el al. (1972). I n their equations, however, t he differential
operator in eqn. (10) does not apply t o t he reflection coefficient in eqn. (2).
Thus, the reflection-coefficient approximation used in eqn. (18) may be
regarded as an improved version of t hat used by Miller el al. (1972). I n
order see t he effect of t he lossy ground on the impedances explicitly i t is
convenient t o separate eqn. (18) into t wo parts, namely
where Z,," is t he impedance of t he ant enna (with a current distribution in
t he presence of a lossy ground) placed on a perfect ground plane, and JZ,,
is t he impedance increment resulting from t he presence of t he lossy ground.
Z,,,m is given by eqn. (18) with t he replacement of R,(R,,,) by 1.0 which implies
a perfect image of t he antenna. To obtain aZ,, we write RJR,,) = I - 2FC(8,,)
where the first and second terms give respectively Z,,," and aZ,,,. From
eqn. (4) i t readily follows t hat
An explicit expression for aZ,,, can be obtained from eqns. (18)-(21) by work-
ing out t he necessary differentiations. It can be shown t hat
D
o
w
n
l
o
a
d
e
d

b
y

[
R
W
T
H

A
a
c
h
e
n

U
n
i
v
e
r
s
i
t
y
]

a
t

0
6
:
0
3

0
2

M
a
y

2
0
1
4

where
llf,,(z,, 2,) = Z,tiQ2 exp ( -ikR,,,-)[P(I - iQ - Q2) + i2QTZ
+QPU(5QT+i ZT+PQPU)] (23)
and where
T =k(z, +z,) (24)
l'hc second line of eqn. (29) does not arise in the reflcction-coefficient approxi-
mation used by Miller el al. (1972) because the reflection coefficient is regarded
as constant with respect to the differential operator in eqn (19). In practice
this can be justified in view of the fact that the contribution of the second
line can be much smaller than t hat of the first line.
For p =q in eqn. (22) the self-impedance is obtained. As eqn. (18) con-
tains a numerical singularity for p=q it is practical to calculate the self-
impedance from eqn. (22). For this purpose we must calculate Z,,,,'. The
real part of Z,," can be determined by Poynting's vector method. According
to this method
where R,,," is the real part of Z,,,,'. Then the radiation resistance is given
by R,,=R,,,,'+aR,,, where aR,, is the real partof aZ, , forp=qin eqn. (22).
The self-reactance X,, and self-susceptance B,, can be obtained from Z,,=
l/Y,,,, where Y,,, is the sclf-admittance. It can be easily shown that
X, , = - B,,R,,IG,, (30)
where Y,,i= G,, + iB,, and Z,,, = R,, + i X ,,,. The reason why we express
the self-susceptance in terms of the self-conductance and self-resistance is
t hat the numerical solution for the imaginary part of the current distribution
does not satisfactorily converge a t the feed point (Chang and Wait 1970).
I t is possible, however, to smooth out the imaginary part of the feed current
artificially in order to obtain a realistic feed current distribution. This is
equivalent t o modifying the original feed geometry such that the voltage
generator is connected t o a finite source-gap instead of an infinitesimal source-
gap. A similar procedure has been previous applied to half-wave antennas in
free-space (King el al. 1968). Using this current distribution in eqns. (22)-
(28) for p=q, R,,, can be obtained. The susceptance and reactance values
for the modified feed geometry are then given by eqns. (29) and (30), respec-
tively.
3. Numerical results and discussions
The accuracy of the numerical procedure is checked by applying it to
examples given b j Chang and Wait (1970) and Miller el al. (1972) for the
D
o
w
n
l
o
a
d
e
d

b
y

[
R
W
T
H

A
a
c
h
e
n

U
n
i
v
e
r
s
i
t
y
]

a
t

0
6
:
0
3

0
2

M
a
y

2
0
1
4

Current rlislribulion and impedance of monopole antenna 55
half-wave antennas. Using 12 segments, a very good agreement is obtained
between t he results for t he current distributions of half-wave antennas a t
100 MHz and 600 NHz on moist ground and sea water for d,,,,=0.27A and
b,,,,=0.007h (A=2n/k is t he wavelength). It is found t hat the agreement
for t he real part of t he current distribution is better than t hat for the imaginary
part. Miller el al. (1972) have presented a curve for t he input resistance of a
Fig. 2
Current distributions a t 5 MHz showing the effect of nntennn-thickness
2,=0.111 exp (-i20.4'), ~,,,=61.4, o,,,= 14.75 rnmho/rn
parasitic array of two half-wave dipoles (b,,,,=bq,=0~0005A) at 3 MHz on
moist ground as a function of separation. The present algorithm with
N,,=N,= 12 has reproduced their curve almost exactly. A very good agree-
ment between t he two results is expected since both techniques use t he
reflection-coefficient approxirnatiou.
In this paper we confine t he examples t o isolated monopole antenna on
wet ground. The purpose of t he cnrves presented is t o show t he effect of
various parameters on t he shape and magnitude of t he current distribution.
The parameters are t he ground constants, t he radius of t he antenna and t he
elevation of t he antenna above t he ground. The ground parameters a t two
different frequencies correspond t o an inhomogeneous ground with an exponen-
tial decrease of conductivity and dielectric constant. The effective surface
impedance and t he material properties are computed by a numerical procedure
in which t he wave equation for t he Hertz potential is numerically integrated
after converting i t into two coupled first-order linear equations. Such a
D
o
w
n
l
o
a
d
e
d

b
y

[
R
W
T
H

A
a
c
h
e
n

U
n
i
v
e
r
s
i
t
y
]

a
t

0
6
:
0
3

0
2

M
a
y

2
0
1
4

Current distributions at 1 MHz showing the effect of antenna-thickness.
Z,=0,062 exp ( - i 35") , r,lf=88.9, o,,,= 13.58 mmholm
procedure has been used by Alostafavi and Mittra (1972) t o calculate t he
reflection coefficient of an inhomogeneous medium.
Figures 2 and 3 show the variatiou of current distribution as a function of
the antenna-radius a t 5 MHz and 1 MHz, respectively. It is assumed t hat
there is an infinitesimal gap between t he ground and t he lower end of t he
antenna. Figure 4 shows t he effect of elevation of t he antenna on the current
distribution. In t he computations AT, , =X, =20 segments are used. The
convergence of t he results are checked by increasing t he number of segments
up t o 30. I t is found t hat t he solutions converge satisfactorily except a t t he
feed point for t he imaginary current distribution. This behaviour is due t o
t he assumed delta-function generator feeding the antenna. It is observed
t hat t he number of segments required increases when t he radius of t he antenna
increases and/or t he surface impedance of t he ground decreases. If t he radius
D
o
w
n
l
o
a
d
e
d

b
y

[
R
W
T
H

A
a
c
h
e
n

U
n
i
v
e
r
s
i
t
y
]

a
t

0
6
:
0
3

0
2

M
a
y

2
0
1
4

Current dislribulion and impedance of monopole anlennu
Big. 4
Current distributions at 1 MHz and 5 MHz showing the effect of antenna-thickness
and antenna-elevation. The ground constants are as in figs. 3 and 2.
of t he ant enna is increased, more charge is accumulated at t he ends of t he
ant enna and hence the slope of t he current distribution increases. Alterna-
tively, if t he ant enna is placed on a ground with a smaller surface impedance
t he charge on t he lower part of t he antenna increases which gives rise t o a
very steep slope. Consequently, in order t o represent the current near t he
ends of t he antenna, especially near the lower end, more segments are needed.
A non-uniform distribution of t he number of segments along t he antenna
would be suitable for this purpose. I n this paper t he segments are uniformly
distributed. The ripples seen in t he curves near t he ends of t he ant enna are
due t o t he insufficiency of t he number of segments a t these points. As the
number of segments are increased these ripples are filtered ; an average curve
passing through these ripples is observed t o be little affected by t he number
of segments for N, = A',= 20. It should also be noticed t hat as t he ant enna
D
o
w
n
l
o
a
d
e
d

b
y

[
R
W
T
H

A
a
c
h
e
n

U
n
i
v
e
r
s
i
t
y
]

a
t

0
6
:
0
3

0
2

M
a
y

2
0
1
4

D
o
w
n
l
o
a
d
e
d

b
y

[
R
W
T
H

A
a
c
h
e
n

U
n
i
v
e
r
s
i
t
y
]

a
t

0
6
:
0
3

0
2

M
a
y

2
0
1
4

Current diatribulion and impedance of monopole antenna 59
becomes thinner t he current distribution becomes more smooth, t he ripples
disappear and the distribution becomes almost sinnsoidal ; t he lossy ground
becomes ineffective on t he shape of t he curves. This behaviour becomes
more marked when t he antenna is raised above t he ground. Also t he proximity
effect is almost indistinguishable for elevated and/or thin anlennas.
Finally we present a table which shows t he admittance and impedance
values obtained by numerical solution and by induced EMF-Poynting's
vector method. The first two columns ( Y and 2) show respectively t he input
admittance and impedance values obtained by t he numericnl solution. The
third column ( R) is computed from R= a R+ H" where aR and R" are respec-
tively obtained from eqns. (22) and (28). The fourth and fifth columns (B
and S) are respectively computed from cqns. (29) and (30). The lost two
columns show t he mntual impedances obtained from eqn. (18). I n t he varia-
tional expressions in eqns. (18) and (22) and in eqn. (28) t he current distri-
bution given in figs. 2-4 are used. In each case the imaginary part of t he
feed current is smoothed by fitting t o the curves a parabola in t he vicinity
of t he feed point. The parabola passes through t he points on t he curves
determined by z/h= - 0.55 and - 0.1 5 and a point determined by t he abscissa
z / h= -0.35 and the ordinate 1.1 times greater than the maximum of the
ordinates of t he previous t wo points. The table shows t hat as the radius is
decreased the i nput admittance rapidly decreases, t he i nput resistance slightly
decreases and i nput reactance rapidly increuses. The effect of other para-
meters on t he admittances and impedances can be clearly seen in t he table.
The agreement between t he self-impedance values obtained by t he numerical
method and induced EXF-Poynting' s vector method reveals confidence on
t he validity of t he numerical results.
4. Conclusions
The presence of a lossy ground has a significant effect on the current
distribution of a thick antenna if no earthing system is used. This effect,
however, can be considerably reduced by decreasing t he radius of t he ant enna
and/or elevating t he ant enna slightly. Numerical results presented show t hat
t he effect of lossy ground on t he shape of the current distribution of a very
thin ant enna is small and t he distribution is close t o a sinusoidal variation.
ACKNOWLEDOMENTS
The author t hanks t he comrnunicationsgroupof t he Electronicsand Electrical
Engineering Department of t he University of Birmingham for giving him t he
opportunity t o carry out this research. The film analysis group of t he
Department of Physics of t he same University is acknowledge for providing
t he computing facilities.
REFERENCES
Cfraro, D. C., 1967, Radw Sci., 2, 1043.
CHANO, D. C., and \Varr, J. R., 1970, I . E. E. E. Tmns. Anlenrm Propag., 18, 182.
HANSEN, P. M., 1972, I . E. E. E. Trans. Antennas I'ropag., 20, 766.
K~No, R. W. P., MACK, R. B., and SANDLER, S. S., 1968. A r r a y of Cylindricnl
Dipoles (Cambridge University Press), Chap. 2.
.MA, hl. T., and W~LTERS, L. C., 1969, ESSA Tech. Rept. IER 104, ITS 74.
D
o
w
n
l
o
a
d
e
d

b
y

[
R
W
T
H

A
a
c
h
e
n

U
n
i
v
e
r
s
i
t
y
]

a
t

0
6
:
0
3

0
2

M
a
y

2
0
1
4

fi0 Current distrib~rlion and impedance of monopole antenna
MILLER, 1. :. K. , POGGIO, A. J . , BURKE, G. J . , and SELDEN, E. S., 197" Can. J . Phys.,
50, 879.
MOSTAFAVI, >I . , nlld ~ I I TTRA, R. , 1972, Radio Sci. , 7. 1105.
OLSEN, It. G., and CHAPC, D. C., 1971, I . E. E. E. Trans. Antenma Propug., 19, 685.
RASHID, A. F., 1Ri0, I . E. E. E. Trans. .4nLeanas Propug., 18, 22.
STARRUCK. J . T. , 1969, Radio Electron. Engng, 37, No. 4 .
TESCIIE, F. .At., 1972, I . E. E. E. Truns. Antennas Propag., 20, 210.
D
o
w
n
l
o
a
d
e
d

b
y

[
R
W
T
H

A
a
c
h
e
n

U
n
i
v
e
r
s
i
t
y
]

a
t

0
6
:
0
3

0
2

M
a
y

2
0
1
4