Convex Body-Surface Curvature Influence on the On-Body Path Gain - a Numerical Investigation

A numerical study of the influence of convex surface curvature on the path gain for a configuration that consists of a dielectric slab and two open-ended S-band waveguide antennas is presented. The curvature is varied from 0.0 1/m to 5.0 1/m. In the first part of the sweep range, there exists a line of sight between the two antennas, whereas for the last part they are located in each other's shadow zone and the wave propagation relies exclusively on diffraction, i.e., creeping waves. It is found that across the entire sweep range the path gain decreases linearly with an increase in curvature on a logarithmic scale and the total decrease is about 15 dB. Furthermore, the presence of creeping waves is verified for a curvature value where no line of sight exists.