INCREMENTAL LENGTH DIFFRACTION COEFFICIENTS FOR AN IMPEDANCE WEDGE

An incremental length diffraction coefficient (ILDC) formulation is presented for the canonical problem of a locally tangent wedge with surface impedance boundary conditions on its faces. The resulting expressions are deduced in a rigorous fashion from a Sommerfeld spectral integral representation of the exact solution for the canonical wedge problem. The ILDC solution is cast into a convenient matrix form which is very simply related to the familiar geometrical theory of diffraction (GTD) expressions for the field on the Keller cone. The scattered field is decomposed into physical optics, surface wave, and fringe contributions. Most of the analysis is concerned with the fringe components; however, the particular features of the various contributions are discussed in detail.