The shielding of a plane wave by a cylindrical array of infinitely long thin wires

A plane wave is considered to be incident upon a cylindrical array of infinitely long perfectly conducting thin wires. The wave is assumed to have no magnetic field component in the direction of the wire axes. Exact expressions are found for the currents excited on the wires-and for the total electric and magnetic fields. Numerical computations are made to determine the currents on the wires and the fields inside the array. It is discovered that an important parameter is the number of wires in the array divided by the number of wavelengths that can be wrapped around the cylinder. If this parameter is large enough, the current distribution on the wires resembles that of a solid conducting cylinder, and the array of wires tends to behave like an electromagnetic shield. For smaller values of the parameter, the current distribution can be quite different, and the field inside the array may even be enhanced.