Experimental research on scattering characteristics of bolt/rivet objects

The mono-station, bi-station and multi-azimuth scattering characteristics of single-row and multi-rows bolt (rivet) plates were studied by a series of radar cross section (RCS) tests. By changing the polarization of incidence wave, arranging the styles of the bolts/rivets, azimuths and bi-station angles, the relationship between scattering and these parameters was obtained. The results show that the nail head shape influences scattering; for round head nail plates horizontal polarization scattering is much higher than vertical polarization, while for flat head nail plates it is only a little higher. Scattering from multi-rows bolt/rivet plates is the superposition on of all single-row effect plates at their respective phases and it may induce the change of peak position. The parallel distribution of bolts and rivets can concentrate scattering in one orientation. For bi-station scattering, the curves of small bi-station angle scattering are similar to those of mono-station scattering while the magnitude and position are changed. Larger bi-station angles may result in scattering coupling. The bi-station angle results in curve deflection and its magnitude is half the bi-station angle. The average RCS decreases with the increase of the bi-station angle.