Numerical Optimization of Aperture Absorbing Loads of Liquid Calorimeters for High-Power Microwave Pulses

Abstract

Frequency-domain numerical modeling is performed and disc-shaped wide-aperture absorbing loads of calorimeters with a working liquid based on ethyl alcohol, which are designed to measure the energy of highpower microwave pulses, are optimized using the finite element method and the Nelder–Mead gradientless procedure. The possibility of using caprolon and polycarbonate as a load casing material with a corrugated inlet window together with low-pressure high-density polyethylene is investigated. The results of calculations significantly refined the results obtained earlier using a computational technique based on the finite-difference time-domain method for a simplified model of the absorbing load.