Patterns of discrete radiating elements for different current distributions

The radiation characteristics of an individual element are obtained from the knowledge of vector magnetic potential along the element and the current distribution in the element. It is evident from the literature that the radiation resistance and such other parameters are evaluated for dipoles of the order of a wavelength. It is clear that the radiation varies over a wide range with the current distributions. However, no information on the effect of the current distribution on the radiation patterns is available in the open literature. In view of this some studies are made to find out such effects. Expressions are derived for the radiation patterns for triangular and sinusoidal distributions. Dipoles of different lengths are considered and the patterns are evaluated. The computed patterns are presented.