Objects with Circular Cross Sections (Cylinders)

As already mentioned several times, objects with circular cross-sections can be approximated with multiple planar rectangles without a big influence on the accuracy of the results.

For the mast, this approximation is only used for the determination of the transmissions / penetrations (for example, for the determination of the shielding of the mast. For the reflections at the mast, the ideal circular cross-section is used to obtain high accuracy in the results.

At least 6 (better 10) planar rectangles should be used to approximate the cylinder accurately.


Figure 1. Modeling of a circular cylinder with multiple planar rectangles.
Parameters for the cylinder are:
  • height of cylinder
  • diameter of cylinder
  • number of corners (for polygon approximating the cross section)
  • location of ground plane center

The bottom and ceiling of the cylinder are not modeled because their influence can be neglected.