Numerical Simulation and Experimental Investigation of Wind Loads on a Naval Radar Radome

A shipborne radar radome is mounted on the outer wall of a ship mast. It protects the radar against harsh external environments while meeting electromagnetic wave transmission requirements, and wind load acts as the primary mechanical load during the service of the radome. In the traditional design of shipborne radomes, wind loads are mostly estimated using engineering empirical values. The effects such as flow around structures and flow separation induced by hull structures (edges, protrusions, etc.) near the radome on wind pressure load distribution are neglected, resulting in considerable deviations between design loads and actual operating conditions.In this paper, a fluid simulation model including the mast and superstructure is established for a specific shipborne radar radome to simulate the complex flow field and wind pressure distribution around the radome. Meanwhile, wind tunnel tests on a scaled model are carried out to accurately obtain the positive and negative wind pressure coefficients on the radome surface under various wind directions. The results indicate that numerical simulation achieves high accuracy for positive pressure conditions, with an average error of pressure coefficients less than 5%. Affected by vortex separation and other effects, notable errors exist in the numerical simulation results for negative pressure conditions, which need to be corrected using wind tunnel test data. This research supports the refined design of radomes and can provide a reference for load analysis of similar shipborne radomes.