Abstract: The mono-station, bi-station and multi-azimuth scattering characteristics of single-row and multi-rows bolt (rivet) plates were studied by a series of radar cross section (RCS) tests. By changing the polarization of incidence wave, arranging the styles of the bolts/rivets, azimuths and bi-station angles, the relationship between scattering and these parameters was obtained. The results show that the nail head shape influences scattering; for round head nail plates horizontal polarization scattering is much higher than vertical polarization, while for flat head nail plates it is only a little higher. Scattering from multi-rows bolt/rivet plates is the superposition on of all single-row effect plates at their respective phases and it may induce the change of peak position.The parallel distribution of bolts and rivets can concentrate scattering in one orientation. For bi-station scattering, the curves of small bi-station angle scattering are similar to those of mono-station scattering while the magnitude and position are changed. Larger bi-station angles may result in scattering coupling. The bi-station angle results in curve deflection and its magnitude is half the bi-station angle. The average RCS decreaseswith the increase of the bi-station angle.

Key words: electromagnetic wave scattering, polarization, radar cross section, bolt, rivet