We are almost to where we can start the physical building of the antenna! 

I've attached all the information I currently have regarding the building project. Some of it is messy work notes and some is well-structured.

I’ve attached the following files for the GENETIS building project:

• Building Dump.txt 
  • My working notes that I used while trying to simulate the antenna in XFdtd (very messy) 
• Building Dump of Useful Materials.txt
  • List of materials that I found regarding the building project like slides, elogs, etc.
• Simulating Building Model.txt
  • A writeup I made describing my process for simulating the antenna in XFdtd 
• Done with change materials.zip
  • Solidworks model of antenna

I also made a slide deck that contains the directory locations + has graphs HERE.

Simulating Building Model

Getting the model we want to build from Solidworks into XF ready for simulations took a bit of work. Here are the steps and things I did to get it to finally work with materials and everything enabled (minus conductors in the coax cable).

General Instructions to setup the antenna the same as I did. Saving after each of these steps.

Getting out of Solidworks:
To get out of Solidworks, I used .step file under the assumption that it would carry the material data over into XF (this assumption was based on what I had read online, though I was looking at the wrong places for that information as I found out later). With this assumption, we spent time getting the materials correct in Solidworks before exporting out into the .step file. I spent considerable time double checking the materials in Solidworks to make sure that everything was defined correctly with at least good enough approximations of the materials to get a simulation working.

Material definitions:

    Shells: Plastic wrapped in Copper Foil, approximated by just having the whole shell as Copper

    Screws Connecting horizontal halves: ABS (PEEK Plastic)

    Supports Connecting vertical halves: ABS

    Other screws: Non-magnetic stainless steel (Passivated 18-8 Stainless Steel)

    Coax Cable:

        Dielectric: Foam Polyethylene (FPE)

        Inner Conductor: Solid Bare Copper Covered Aluminum

        Outer Conductor: Aluminum Tape

        Outer Braid: Tinned Copper

        Jacket: Polyethylene

    Everything else: Approximated as copper (not entirely sure if they are copper fully or if they are just wrapped with copper foil)

Importing into XFdtd:
After having the step file exported, I put the file onto OSC and opened a new XFdtd project. I then clicked the "Import -> Cad Models" to select my file and have it imported. I did not import in the material data as I found out it did not import in correctly to each part, so I ignored it and manually added the material definitions later.

I now have the model into XFdtd, but it’s rotated 90 degrees to be in the horizontal plane. This isn’t inherently bad, but I want my surrounding scripts to not have to be changed much so I rotate the model to have the wire pointing in the +z direction in XFdtd. Once I’ve done this, I right click on the Braid and Inner + Outer conductors in the coax cable and select something similar to "Do not include in meshing." This now makes sure that these are NOT in the simulation.

Then, I manually added material properties into XFdtd from definitions I looked up online for the electric + magnetic properties of:

    Copper

    Plastic (ABS)

    Foam Polyethylene (dielectric)

    Polyethylene

    Aluminum

    Stainless Steel

After creating these material definitions, I applied them to the appropriate parts.

Feed adjustments:
I want the feed to be in the same location as the coax cable for the best results, problem is that there are holes in the place where the coax cable would be split (which I disabled to prevent shorting!). So, I setup two copper pucks (not much thicker than the copper pieces that cover the tops by the feeds) to fill out the holes and make sure each half is connected to each corresponding side of the feed. After I place these in the correct location, I use the same 50-ohm feed setup script used in the GENETIS Vpol loop.

Now we have everything almost ready to simulate.

Simulation Setup:
There are various things needed to be done to setup the script, and while you can use the GUI, I’m not familiar enough with it so I just used the corresponding scripts in the GENETIS loop that would be needed before an XF simulation takes place. After I run this, we are now ready to simulate.

Running Simulation:
Again, not familiar with the GUI so I just used the GENETIS XFdtd job scripts and modified them for this purpose (which was just adjusting directories of outputs). Then I submitted the job and waited for it to complete (I believe it took around 8 min per simulation for this antenna).

Getting uan files:
I then opened the simulation and ran the same code used to output UANs as used in the GENETIS loop to output all 60 uan files at the frequencies we want.

Now you should have the files for the building model that was made in CAD!

Debugging Steps I took:
This took me a while over spring break, at least a lot longer than I thought it would.

    I found out that the material data from .step file does not translate as I had expected into XFdtd so I had to manually input the material data as shown above

    I found out that hiding a part in XF does NOT exclude it from simulation, you have to remove it from meshing or it still remains there

    I did compare the geometries between the as-evolved antenna and this building model, there are differences but they are slight. Overall they are very similar

    Removing the conductors for the coax cable is necessary as it will just short the two pieces (leading back to 2) which makes sense

Final:
After doing all this, I ended up getting what I deemed reasonable for the outputs for the building model after 28 runs in my 03_13_2025_manual.xf xf file on my user. Run28 is the run that I describe setting up above this text.

The material is not 1-1 with what will be built as I found it difficult to find exact electro-magnetic properties for all of these, so maybe the discrepancies in gain could be resolved through more rigorous definitions. It could actually technically make it worse, but maybe when this is physically built this will need to be done to get more accurate results to compare against.

Simulating both of these with higher statistics in AraSim resulted in the antennas actually performing worse than the base Vpol antenna, which stinks but it is both of the antennas not just one!

After (delayed) emails back and forth with Christian Miki from University of Hawaii, he found these same issues while he was looking at the model from CAD before I went through the XFdtd simulation steps.

Material Definitions in XF:
For critique, here are the material definitions I used in the XF simulation (using XF material definition windows). You should be able to look at them in the actual xf project I mentioned above in my user (full path in slide decks)

All setup with the following:
Type: Physical
Electric: Isotropic
Magnetic: Isotropic

Passivated 18-8 Stainless Steel:
Electric Tab
Type: Nondispersive
Entry Method: Normal
Good Conductor: Automatic
Conductivity: 1.1e+06 S/m
Relative Permittivity: 1
Infinite Dielectric Strength: Yes

Magnetic Tab
Type: Nondispersive
Entry Method: Normal
Conductivity: 0
Relative Permeability: 1.03

PEEK Plastic
Electric Tab
Type: Nondispersive
Entry Method: Loss Tangent
Good Conductor: Automatic
Relative Permittivity: 3.3
Loss Tangent: 0.003
Evaluation Frequency: 1 MHz
Infinite Dielectric Strength: Yes

Magnetic Tab
Type: Nondispersive
Entry Method: Normal
Conductivity: 0
Relative Permeability: 1

Foam Polyethylene
Electric Tab
Type: Nondispersive
Entry Method: Loss Tangent
Good Conductor: Automatic
Relative Permittivity: 1.6
Loss Tangent: 0.0004
Evaluation Frequency: 1 MHz
Infinite Dielectric Strength: Yes

Magnetic Tab
Type: Nondispersive
Entry Method: Normal
Conductivity: 0
Relative Permeability: 1

Polyethylene
Electric Tab
Type: Nondispersive
Entry Method: Loss Tangent
Good Conductor: Automatic
Relative Permittivity: 2.25
Loss Tangent: 0.0004
Evaluation Frequency: 1 MHz
Infinite Dielectric Strength: Yes

Magnetic Tab
Type: Nondispersive
Entry Method: Normal
Conductivity: 0
Relative Permeability: 1

ABS Plastic
Electric Tab
Type: Nondispersive
Entry Method: Loss Tangent
Good Conductor: Automatic
Relative Permittivity: 3.2
Loss Tangent: 0.005
Evaluation Frequency: 1 MHz
Infinite Dielectric Strength: Yes

Magnetic Tab
Type: Nondispersive
Entry Method: Normal
Conductivity: 0
Relative Permeability: 1

Copper Foil
Electric Tab
Type: Nondispersive
Entry Method: Normal
Good Conductor: Automatic
Conductivity: 5.96e+07 S/m
Relative Permittivity: 1
Infinite Dielectric Strength: Yes

Magnetic Tab
Type: Nondispersive
Entry Method: Normal
Conductivity: 0
Relative Permeability: 1

Building Dump: 
Debugging Issues with Antenna model simulation:

Graphs to get (compared to Curved_Sides Antenna Run):
- Gain Plots 
	- Look at frequencies where dips. Could be due to: dielectric loss, mismatched impedance or structural changes
- Impedance Over Frequency Plots
	- Want impedance to be around 50 Ohm for resistive components and 0 for reactance at operational frequencies
- S11 Plots (Return Loss VS Frequency)
	- Look for where the S11 dips to determine where the antenna is resonant
- Total Efficiency Vs Frequencies
	- Drops at certain frequencies indicates problems! 
- VSWR vs Frequency
	- Lower VSWR means better matching 


in 03_13_2025_manual.xf:
Run1 = wrong material defs (deleted)
Run2 = glitched it 
Run3 = wrong material def again slightly changed tho
Run4 = wrong material, with conductor gone
Run5 = wrong material, with full wire gone
Run6 = right material, full wire gone
Run7 = right material, conductor gone
Run8 = right material, everything there feed shifted to side
Run9 = right material, feed in middle of conductor
Run10 = right material, wire gone feed offset reduced (putting closer to center). this failed because the top of the feed was disconnected
Run11 = right material, feed with correct max feed offset allowed, coax gone
Run12 = trying the same thing but with the coax gone with building the feed
Run13 = with coax cable back, feed shifted closer to middle (apparently forgot to save and it's just the same thing.. as run12) 
Run14 = adding pads and putting feed in the middle of the antenna, leave dielectric and jacket turned on
Run16 = pads, feed in middle, removing dielectric and jacket (-300 thing again.. not sure why) 
Run17 = same thing but ABS material changed and adjusted pucks a little
Run18 = same ABS material change but with only inner conductor removed (I am testing why I am getting -300..)
Run19 = removed supports, still  with pucks + only inner conductor removed  
Run20 = removing pucks, with conductor removed and new ABS material (no more -300 but very low again...) 
run21 = removed pucks, conductors(PLURAL) with new ABS Material 
run23 = back to just supports, offset feed new ABS Material
run24 = coax gone, og ABS material, with the offset feed closer to the middle
run25 = everything back to normal coax gone (something wrong)  
run26 = trying to fix the issue I'm seeing (FIXED) you have to uncheck that materials are included in meshing :/
run27 = actually removing the outer and inner conductors (yields worse gains!) 
run28 = moving to feed center w/ copper plates and with the jacket + dielectric

Seems like the wire in the middle should be plastic (or non-conducting)? based off document wangjie sent me
"If we 3D print the metal, Chi-Chih thought that we could keep them together through a plasic rod running
through the middle" (It's not!) 

maybe not, named LMR600 in solidworks which have the following material properties:
https://www.awcwire.com/lmr-cable/lmr-75-ohm-cable/lmr-600-75

screws connecting halves needed to be plastic

all other screws needed to be non-magnetic stainless steel

everything else is copper (?) 

Trying to change materials of the wire and supports (03_13_2025_building_sim_2.xf): still bad 
Trying again with same materials and putting feed down center of coax cable(03_13_2025_building_sim_3.xf): everything is -300 dBi :(
removing the copper middle part (03_13_2025_building_sim_4.xf): still bad
manually adding materials into XFdtd (03_13_2025_manual.xf): still bad, but different bad actually numbers-wise worse
	- Passivated 18-8 Stainless Steel
	- PEEK Plastic
	- Dielectric: Foam Polyethylene (FPE)
	- Inner Conductor: Solid Bare Copper Covered Aluminum
	- Outer Conductor: Aluminum Tape
	- Outer Braid: Tinned Copper
	- Jacket: Polyethylene
	- ABS Plastic
	- Copper foil

I believe the feed replaces the coax cable in the middle so I am removing the inner conductor and assuming that it will be the same as the feed. 

Dimensions of Curved Antenna (model based off this): (in cm for relevant parts) 
	- r1 = 3.20675
	- height1 = 39.3683
	- a1 = -0.0123505
	- b1 = 0.418171
	- r2 = 3.6116
	- height2 = 18.605
	- a2 = -0.0233028
	- b2 = 0.369081
	- Total height = 60.9733
Dimensions of Model in XF: (ignoring a's and b's as that's harder to measure..) (again in cm) (rough measurements in XF)
	- r1 = 3.7
	- h1 = 33.7441
	- r2 = 3.4
	- h2 = 18.71
	- total height = 55.45 (no cable) 60.6459 (including cable)

Reference run XF settings: 

- Removed the wire in the middle that was connecting the two sides: no difference (need to redo with it actually deleted + having the top plates copper) (03_11_2025_building_sim_1.xf)
- Removed middle wire AGAIN (03_13_2025_building_sim_0.xf): no difference, same issue
- Removed Supports and simulated(03_12_2025_building_sim_0.xf): This seems to have fixed the issue I'm seeing, so either the supports or the wire are shorting the antenna (or both!)
- Removed Supports ONLY(03_13_2025_building_sim_1.xf): still happening, though less extreme

For Initial Building Run: 
Generation 13, individual 84 seems to be result being used (this assumption is based on the fact that when trying to straighten the sides for building they used this individual)
	/fs/ess/PAS1960/BiconeEvolutionOSC/BiconeEvolution/current_antenna_evo_build/XF_Loop/Evolutionary_Loop/Run_Outputs/2022_12_29
 
Elog Links for first building runs:
	- Run Details: https://radiorm.physics.ohio-state.edu/elog/GENETIS/188
	- Run Results + Gain Patterns: https://radiorm.physics.ohio-state.edu/elog/GENETIS/189
	- Matching Circuit PCB: https://radiorm.physics.ohio-state.edu/elog/GENETIS/193
	- Matching Circuit Parts: https://radiorm.physics.ohio-state.edu/elog/GENETIS/191
	- Matching Circuit Schematic: https://radiorm.physics.ohio-state.edu/elog/GENETIS/230
	- Matching Circuit Initial Design: https://radiorm.physics.ohio-state.edu/elog/GENETIS/183
	- PoR Plots 1: https://radiorm.physics.ohio-state.edu/elog/GENETIS/194
	- PoR Plots 2: https://radiorm.physics.ohio-state.edu/elog/GENETIS/196
	- Straightened Sides 1: https://radiorm.physics.ohio-state.edu/elog/GENETIS/229
	- Straightened Sides 2: https://radiorm.physics.ohio-state.edu/elog/GENETIS/236
	

At some point, another run seems to have been created for building with the crazy sides run here with REALIZED GAIN: 
/fs/ess/PAS1960/BiconeEvolutionOSC/BiconeEvolution/current_antenna_evo_build/XF_Loop/Evolutionary_Loop/Run_Outputs/2023_09_05_realized_curved_run

- Run is using the same freq of interest as what we currently use!!

Top 5 vEffective Scores of Realized Gain run:
Value: 5.09897, Generation: 41, Individual: 44 (Seems to be this one, modified) 
Value: 5.07746, Generation: 37, Individual: 16
Value: 5.05508, Generation: 37, Individual: 5
Value: 5.04558, Generation: 38, Individual: 12
Value: 5.04026, Generation: 48, Individual: 5


GENETIS Useful Links: 
	- GENETIS Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1iDamk46R2_oOLHtvsOg4jNy05mCiB7Sn?dmr=1&ec=wgc-drive-hero-goto
	- Onboarding Materials: https://radiorm.physics.ohio-state.edu/elog/GENETIS/41
	- Julie's Dissertation: https://radiorm.physics.ohio-state.edu/elog/Write-Ups/220404_161525/Julie_Rolla_Dissertation.pdf
	- Julie's Candidacy: https://as-phy-radiorm.asc.ohio-state.edu/elog/Write-Ups/44
	- ICRC Proceedings: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2112.00197
	- Phys Rev D Paper: https://journals.aps.org/prd/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevD.108.102002
	- ARA Loop GitHub: https://github.com/osu-particle-astrophysics/GENETIS-ARA
	- PUEO Loop GitHub: https://github.com/osu-particle-astrophysics/GENETIS_PUEO
	- Shared Code GitHub: https://github.com/osu-particle-astrophysics/Shared-Code
	- AraSim GitHub: https://github.com/ara-software/AraSim/tree/master
	- pueoSim GitHub: https://github.com/PUEOCollaboration/pueoSim