Numerical Analysis of Electromagnetic Textiles and Application in Emergency Communication Network

Abstract

In this dissertation, we presented a new type of textile antenna with new radiation mechanism that is capable of resonating at 1/9 the size of a corresponding microstrip antenna due to the woven structures. Further study of this phenomenon suggests development of textile electromagnetic structures with artificially magnetic conductor (AMC) and frequency selective surface (FSS) characteristics. Full-wave finite element method (FEM) simulation of the antennas as well as textile FSS and textile AMC are carried out and compared with existing electromagnetic structures. The results suggest conventional electromagnetic structures such as FSS and AMC can be realized with flexible textile materials. These textile electromagnetic materials possess unique electromagnetic properties that can be applied to a variety of electromagnetic problems, including new kinds of low-profile antennas, standalone FSS and artificial electromagnetic surfaces. On the other hand, efforts toward development of a novel wireless emergency communication network have been made. Public communication infrastructures are vulnerable to catastrophic events and are usually incapacitated when disaster hits. An airborne Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) with Global Special Mobile (GSM) Short Message Service (SMS) capability is proposed to provide rapidly deployable emergency wireless communication solution. A SMS-WSN node prototype is developed and encapsulated in a weatherproof and airdrop enabled shell. A cargo aircraft loaded with the SMS-WSN nodes can be deploy to an affected area within hours, distribute thousands of nodes to form a complimentary SMS network which is capable of relaying text messages among all cellular users. Although more work is needed to improve the design, our results have demonstrated the viability of providing text messaging service among cellular users during emergency to help saving people’s lives.