J.F. Dawson

Analytical formulation for the shielding effectiveness of enclosures with apertures

An analytical formulation has been developed for the shielding effectiveness of a rectangular enclosure with an aperture. Both the magnetic and electric shielding may be calculated as a function of frequency, enclosure dimensions, aperture dimensions and position within the enclosure. Theoretical values of shielding effectiveness are in good agreement with measurements. The theory has been extended to account for circular apertures, multiple apertures, and the effect of the enclosure contents.

Optimization of stirrer designs in a reverberation chamber

This paper describes an investigation into the key factors which contribute to an effective mode stirrer. The work concentrates on the lower frequency range, since all stirrers have poorer performance at low frequencies. The stirrers shapes and sizes have been investigated, together with an optimization of the finer details in the stirrers shape. The modeling of the mode stirred chamber has been performed using the transmission-line matrix (TLM) method. Software has been developed which, for each position of the rotating stirrer, builds the shape of the stirrer using thin, perfectly conducting boundaries. Results indicate that the design of the stirrers basic shape has a small but significant impact on its performance. A genetic algorithm has been used to optimize certain parameters in the shape of the stirrer, and a fitness factor based on a free space model of the stirrer has been used. The free space model runs 1500 times faster than the model in the chamber. The optimization is shown to improve the stirrers performance in three different sizes of chamber. Computer modeling has been verified by measurements performed in the chamber at the University of York.

A fast multiple mode intermediate level circuit model for the prediction of shielding effectiveness of a rectangular box containing a rectangular aperture

This paper presents an intermediate level circuit model (ILCM) for the prediction of the shielding effectiveness (SE) of a rectangular box containing a rectangular aperture, irradiated by a plane wave. The ILCM takes into account multiple waveguide modes, and is thus suitable for use at high frequencies and/or relatively large boxes. Inter-mode coupling and reradiation from the aperture are taken into account. The aperture may be positioned anywhere in the front face of the box, and the SE at any point within the box may be found. The model is presented in such a way that existing ILCM techniques for modelling elements such as monopoles, dipoles, loops, or transmission lines may be seamlessly incorporated into the circuit model. Solution times using the ILCM technique are three orders of magnitude less than those required by traditional numerical methods such as FDTD, TLM, or MoM. Accuracy however is not significantly compromised. Comparing the circuit model with TLM over nine data sets from 4 MHz to 3 GHz resulted in an rms difference of 7.70 dB and mean absolute difference of 5.55 dB in the predicted SE values.

A proposed new definition and measurement of the shielding effect of equipment enclosures

This paper describes the rationale behind a new proposed measurement of the screening effect of an equipment enclosure that takes into account the contents of the enclosure. The method uses a set of representative contents for enclosures. The representative contents are equipped with surface field probes to measure the power entering the contents. The ratio of this power to the incident power density is used to derive a quantity with the dimensions of area, termed here the shielding aperture. The measurement technique is described and examples of measurements are given along with computed comparisons with the conventional shielding effectiveness of the enclosures used.

Model of the electromagnetic fields inside a cuboidal enclosure populated with conducting planes or printed circuit boards

We examine the extension of a simple and versatile model of the electromagnetic fields in an equipment enclosure with an aperture to include the effects of loading the enclosure with conducting planes or printed circuit board structures (PCB). Modeling results are compared with experimental measurements of the shielding effectiveness in a cuboidal enclosure loaded with both grounded and ungrounded conducting planes and/or PCBs with a range of grounded and ungrounded tracks. Measurement results are compared with full electromagnetic simulations and the simple model to demonstrate the accuracy and range of validity of the simple model.

A Method for the Measurement of Shielding Effectiveness of Planar Samples Requiring No Sample Edge Preparation or Contact

A method is presented for the measurement of shielding effectiveness of planar materials with nonconducting surfaces such as carbon fiber composites. The method overcomes edge termination problems with such materials by absorbing edge-diffracted energy. A dynamic range of up to 100 dB has been demonstrated over a frequency range of 1-8.5 GHz, depending on the size of the sample under test. Comparison with ASTM D4935 and nested reverberation measurements of shielding effectiveness shows good agreement.

Electromagnetic coupling between wires inside a rectangular cavity using multiple-mode-analogous-transmission-line circuit theory

This paper examines the coupling between two arbitrarily positioned wire segments inside a rectangular enclosure. The enclosure is treated as a superposition of analogous transmission lines which have been short circuited at two positions on the propagation axis. Each analogous transmission line is associated with a particular waveguide mode in the cavity. Previous work has used this analogy to predict the coupling between two monopoles inside a small box using the dominant TE/sub 10/ mode. This paper considers the general case of high-frequency coupling between two wire monopoles in a large rectangular cavity, where several higher order modes are active. By taking into account higher order modes, and the mutual coupling between the modes, a simple equivalent circuit is presented which can give a prediction for the coupling between the monopoles. Experimental results for various monopole pair positions are shown, which indicate the success of the multimode theory. The technique requires far less computer resources than traditional methods for solving such a problem (e.g., MoM, TLM or FDTD), with solution times of less than a second on an average PC. In addition, considerable insight into the coupling process can be gained by including or excluding particular waveguide modes. This is not possible with numerical methods.

Broadband Measurement of Absorption Cross Section of the Human Body in a Reverberation Chamber

We present broadband reverberation chamber measurements of the absorption cross section (ACS) of the human body averaged over all directions of incidence and angles of polarization. This frequency-dependent parameter characterizes the interactions between the body and the enclosures of reverberant environments such as aircraft cabins, and is, therefore, important for the determination of the overall Q-factor and, hence, the field strength illuminating equipment inside such enclosures. It also correlates directly with the electromagnetic exposure of occupants of reverberant environments. The average ACS of nine subjects was measured at frequencies over the range 1-8.5 GHz. For a 75-kg male, the ACS varied between 0.18 and 0.45 square meters over this range. ACS also correlated with body surface area for the subjects tested. The results agree well with computational electromagnetic simulations, but are obtained much more rapidly. We have used the obtained values of ACS to estimate the effect of passengers on the Q-factor of a typical airliner cabin.

A fast circuit model description of the shielding effectiveness of a box with imperfect gaskets or apertures covered by thin resistive sheet coatings

This paper presents an intermediate level circuit model (ILCM) for the prediction of the shielding effectiveness (SE) of a rectangular box containing one or more rectangular gaskets of known transfer impedance or constitutive parameters. The box may also possess a rectangular aperture covered by a thin resistive sheet. The ILCM takes into account multiple waveguide modes and is thus suitable for use at high frequencies and with relatively large boxes. The gaskets may be positioned anywhere in the irradiated front face of the box, and the SE at any point within the box may be found when irradiated by a plane wave. Solution times using the ILCM technique are three orders of magnitude less than those required by traditional numerical methods such as finite difference time domain (FDTD), transmission line matrix (TLM), or method of moments (MoM), even when using a relatively slow interpreted language such as MATLAB. Accuracy, however, is not significantly compromised. Comparing the circuit model with TLM over eight data sets from 4 MHz to 3 GHz resulted in an rms difference of 3.90 dB and a mean absolute difference of 2.35 dB in the predicted SE values. The ILCM accurately reproduces the detailed structure of the SE curves as a function of frequency and observation point

Improved aperture model for shielding prediction

In this paper, we combine the standard expression for the impedance of a capacitive diaphragm inside a rectangular waveguide with a recent model for the shielding effectiveness of a rectangular box with a rectangular aperture in its front face. The result is an improved, very rapid and simple intermediate level circuit model which allows the shielding effectiveness of a rectangular box with a rectangular aperture or slot in its face to be evaluated. Irradiation is by a vertically polarized plane wave falling on the front face of the box. The apertures in the improved model must occupy the entire width of the box, though may be set at any vertical height. Existing circuit models for shielding effectiveness require the slot to be placed centrally (in height and width) in the front face of the box, though they allow the slot to be of any length. However, such models are found to fail when the length of the slot corresponds to an integral number of wavelengths of free space radiation. In such cases the shielding effectiveness (SE) is erroneously predicted to be infinite. In contrast, the model presented here gives good predictions for SE even when the horizontal width of the slot is an integral number of wavelengths long.