Scattering by a wedge with rounded edge

Scattering by a semi-infinite perfectly conducting wedge with rounded edge is formulated for line-source excitation using the boundary-value approach. Numerical results are presented for the important case of monostatic plane-wave scattering in the far field. These results comprise principal-polarization data plotted as a function of aspect angle for
60\deg
,
90\deg
, and
120\deg
wedges with maximum rounding
ka
of 4, where
ka
is the electrical radius of curvature of the edge. Observations uniformly conform with qualitative predictions based upon simple scattering arguments. It is shown that
ka
as small as 0.8 can double the sharp wedge result at symmetrical incidence, although the effect of rounding is markedly dependent upon polarization and wedge angle. For
ka \leq 1
, the solution is viewed as the sharp wedge result plus a perturbation field which exhibits simple parametric dependencies. In particular, the aspect dependence of these perturbations can be accurately extracted. The present work is a preliminary step in extension of high-frequency asymptotic theory to finite targets having rounded as well as sharp edges.