Electromagnetic Fields in Reverberant Environments

The phenomenon of resonating electromagnetic (EM) fields has been commonly and successfully exploited in reverberation chambers (RC) for the purpose of electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) testing, as well as modeling multipath environments. Although largely successful, the currently used statistical models allow for a certain degree of freedom, especially with regard to defining the extreme field strengths, which are also the main cause of electromagnetic interference (EMI). Furthermore, some actual multipath, enclosed environments such as airplane fuselages, ships, or even building interiors, can unintentionally possess the ability to create enough strong reflections so that the resulting resonating EM field within them resembles the field inside a dedicated RC.
The initial step made in this thesis focuses on introducing REs as environments sharing multiple aspects of EM field shaping with RCs. The results indicate a possible similarity to a referential RC analyzed alongside. Furthermore, due to the difficulty of collecting large amounts of data and parameter isolation in the REs, two dedicated chambers: a classical RC and the vibrating intrinsic reverberation chamber (VIRC), have been analyzed as candidates allowing to simulate an RE in laboratory conditions.
The search of maximum field strengths in REs has been performed by exploiting the capability of the VIRC to efficiently generate large amounts of independent samples. Performing very long measurements in the VIRC allows to obtain the desired results with very high repeatability, while giving space for parameter isolation.
The measurement results obtained outside the laboratory conditions allowed to formulate a method of performing on-site emissions testing. Although performed in imperfect REs, a modified RC standard technique has been successfully applied, concluding that such an approach is possible and recommended.
The final topic of the thesis discusses a creation of a simplified macro-parameter model of field coupling to cables when neither the exact cable geometry, nor the coupling field is known. Instead of focusing on precision, this investigation aims at finding any similarities, possibly allowing to avoid the difficulties related to the very sensitive description of a non-uniform transmission line, exploiting the mixed randomness of the line geometry and the multipath field excitation.