Propagation Characteristics in Straight Open-Groove

Structures
Javier U. S. Lastra and Silvio E. Barbin
Department of Telecommunications and Control Engineering, Polytechnic School,
University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

Abstract — This paper presents the propagation A. Attenuation Due to Absorption

characteristics in straight open-groove structures in UHF
based on the imperfect waveguide method. The attenuation
In this section, a brief summary of the waveguide
constant due to surrounding media absorption, sidewalls tilt
and the roughness of the sidewalls are considered and theory is presented [2]. The guided wave characteristics in
corrected. Numerical results are presented for the a Cartesian coordinate system can be described by its
attenuation constant. These results show that the losses due wave vector (Kxi, Kyi, Kzi), where i= 0,1,2. Their
to the roughness of the sidewalls are inversely proportional coordinates are linked by the following equations:
to the frequency and losses due to sidewalls tilt is the main
cause of power loss at high frequencies. Thus attenuation due
to absorption and roughness of the sidewalls are negligible in
comparison to attenuation due to sidewalls tilt in this
frequency range.

Index Terms1 — Imperfect waveguide method, open-

groove structures.
I. INTRODUCTION
The demand for communication services in different
places, like roads in mountain areas and streets in urban
Fig. 1. Cross-section of a groove structure and coordinate
areas have been increasing significantly. These places system.
may be considered as open-groove structures. For the
determination of the attenuation constant for this type of
structure there are two models: the geometrical optical K x20  K y20  K z20 K 02 , (1)
model described by Othaki [1] and the imperfect
waveguide model described by Zhang [2]. The derivation K x21  K y21  K z21 K12 , (2)
of the theoretical solution for the second model is
somewhat complicated but it is simple in numerical K x22  K y22  K z22 K 22 . (3)
computation in comparison with the first one. The losses
where
due to the roughness of the sidewalls and the sidewalls tilt
for a straight rectangular tunnel were calculated by Emslie K0 2 S f P 0H 0 , (4)
[3] and corrected for the near field region by Zhang [4].
K1 K o H r1  j 60OV 1 , (5)
II. THEORETICAL CONSIDERATION and
Fig. 1 shows a simplified cross section of the open-
groove structure considered here. The sidewalls media are K2 K o H r 2  j 60OV 2 . (6)
assumed to be made of lossy dielectrics with relative
dielectric constant İr1 and electric conductivity ı1. The
ground medium has material constants İr2 and ı2. In the equations above, K0, K1, and K2 are, respectively,
the wave numbers in vacuum, in the side walls’ medium
Javier U. S. Lastra and Silvio E. Barbin are with the Department and in the ground medium, f is the frequency in Hertz. Ȝ is
of Telecommunications and Control Engeniering, Polytechnic the wavelength in meters and the electric conductivities ıi
School, University de São Paulo – Av. Prof. Luciano Gualberto are in Siemens/meter.
São Paulo s/n – Trav.3 no. 158 – SP CEP 05508-900
(E-mails: jsolis@lcs.poli.usp.br and barbin@lcs.poli.usp.br )

0-7803-9342-2/05/$20.00 © 2005 IEEE 403

According to geometric optics, the ray makes small where Z 0 | 377: is the free-space characteristic
grazing angles with the sidewalls and the ground. Since
Kx0 and Ky0 are small compared with Kz0, we find from (1) impedance and Z sv is the ground surface impedance for
that Kz0 is given approximately by vertical polarization. Similarly, for horizontal polarized
waves:
K z0 | K 0 . (7)
mS 2mS (H r1  j 60OV 1 )
The energy carried by the electromagnetic wave is K xh0  j 2 , (16)
concentrated in the groove region and the near zones of a a H r1  j 60OV 11K 0
the surrounding media once the transmit and receive
antennas are located near the ground plane. In this way, it Z sh K yh2
is assumed that K yh0 , (17)
Z0
K x0 | K x2 , (8)
where
K y 0 | K y1 . (9) K0Z0
Z sh , (18)
Since K z 0 K z1 K z2 K z , as required by K 22  K 02
boundary conditions from (1), we obtain
and
2 2
§ K K ·
K z | K 0 ¨1 
¨ 2 K 02
x0 y0
¸.
¸
(10) K yh2 | K 22  K 02  K xh0   2
. (19)
© ¹
The power loss in dB for guided electromagnetic waves B. Attenuation Due to the Roughness of the Sidewalls and
for a distance z is to the Sidewalls Tilt
LdB 8.686 Im(K z ) z . (11)
The losses due to surface roughness and tilt walls in
To find Kx0 and Ky0, we chose an open-groove structure, straight tunnels were first calculated by Emslie [3] and
that can be decomposed as an imperfect parallel-plate improved by Zhang [4] for the near field region. To apply
waveguide to model the sidewalls and an infinite plane the enhancement in the straight tunnels we need to
interface to represent the road. Therefore, for vertically consider the difference between near field region and far
polarized waves field region. For the case of a Gaussian distribution of the
surface level defined by its rms value (h). In this way, the
mS 2mS attenuation due to roughness for the near field is
K xv0  j 2 . (12)
a a H r1  j 60OV 11K 0
v § 1 1 ·
Setting m=1, the dominant mode K x 0 has the smallest LrtNF 8.686 S 2 h 2 O z¨ 4  4 ¸. (20)
v
absorption loss. Thus K y 2 is approximately expressed as ©a b ¹
However, for open-groove structures, we have to
consider only reflections between the sidewalls. We may
K v
y2
2
| K2  K0  K
2
  v 2
x0 (13) write
where 8.686 S 2 h 2 O z
LrONF . (21)
v
Z 0 K yv 2 a4
K , (14)
Z sv H r 2  j 60OV 2 
y0
The attenuation due to rougnhness for far the field is

and
4.343 S 2 h 2 O z
2 2 LrOFF . (22)
v
K0Z0 K  K 2 0 a4
Z s 2
, (15)
K 2

404
 Equation (20) is the same found by Zhang [4] and where ș is the rms tilt.
equation (21) is similar to equation (20) in [2]. Also, to
predict the attenuation due to sidewalls tilt in straight
tunnels we may use the formulation established in [4], III. Numerical Examples
which is similar to the one given in [2]. In both cases, an
error in the final result exists. For the first one, the
In this section, we show examples of propagation
attenuation due to sidewall’s tilt is
characteristics based on the imperfect waveguide method
8.686S 2T 2 z where the power loss is expressed by (11), (21), and (24).
Ltt , (23) The influence of the transmission and reception antennas
O is not taken into account. The parameters for the open-
and for the second case (open-groove structures) it is groove structure used here are; İr1= İr2= 4.18, ı1= ı2=
0.026 s/m, a=3.9 m. and b=4.8 m. The same parameters
4.343S 2T 2 z were used by Ohtaky [1] and Zhang [2].
LtO , (24)
O

(a) (b)

(c ) (d)
Fig.2 Frequency characteristics of the attenuation constants: (a) absorption, (b) roughness, (c) tilt, and (d) total.

405
 The attenuation due to absorption is presented in Fig. 2
(a). It can be seen that the attenuation for the horizontal
polarization is higher than for vertical polarization. Both
are approximately inversely proportional to the frequency.
Fig. 2 (b) shows the attenuation due to the roughness for
rms values of 0.025 and 0.05m. In Fig. 2 (c) the
attenuation due to tilt, for rms tilt values of 0.35º and
0.45º, is illustrated. Fig 2 (d) shows the total attenuation
constant, which is the sum of the above three losses, for
horizontal and vertical polarization, for a tilt angle of
0.35º.
According to the above results, the losses due to the
roughness of the sidewalls are negligible in the UHF
range. The attenuation constant due to sidewall tilt is
directly proportional to the frequency , as can be seen
from (24).
IV. CONCLUSIONS
The imperfect waveguide method was used to describe
the radio propagation characteristics in open-groove
structures. The errors in the formulas of the tilt losses
given in [2] and [4] have been corrected for rectangular
tunnels and open-groove structure. The attenuation
406
constant due to sidewalls tilt is the main cause of power
losses at frequencies.
REFERENCES
[1] Y. Ohtaki, Y. Yamaguchi, and T. Abe, “Experimental study
of propagation characteristics on roads on a snowy
mountain,” IEEE Trans. Electromagn. Compat.,, vol. 30,
no. 2, pp. 137-144, May 1988.
[2] Y. P. Zhang, Y. Hwang, and J. D. Parsons, “UHF radio
propagation characteristics in straight open-groove
structures,” IEEE Trans. Veh. Technol., vol. 48, pp. 249-
254, January 1999.
[3] A. G. Esmile,R. L. Lagace, and P. F. Strong , “Theory of
the Propagation of UHF Radio Waves in Coal Mine
Tunnels,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., vol. AP-23, pp.
192-205, March 1975.
[4] Y. P. Zhang, and Y. Hwang, “Enhancement of rectangular
tunnel waveguide model,” Asia Pacific Microwave
Conference ,1997.