Evaluation of electromagnetic field characteristics inside carbon fiber reinforced plastic structure using reverberation chamber method

Microwave electromagnetic field characteristics inside a carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) structure are measured using a reverberation chamber method. To examine the differences between a metallic structure and a CFRP structure, the quality factors of a rectangular reverberation chamber are evaluated. The sidewall of the reverberation chamber, at a size of 2.1 m × 1.8 m, is replaced with CFRP panels. Firstly, to evaluate the field uniformity of the chamber, the standard deviation of the measured average and maximum electric field (E-field) strength inside the chamber is confirmed to be less than 2 dB between 500 MHz and 6 GHz. The cumulative distribution functions of the E-field strength are in good agreement with the theoretical Rayleigh distribution. Then, the quality factor of the chamber with the aluminum and the CFRP sidewalls are almost the same and no significant difference is observed. On the other hand, the opening apertures on the chamber have large reduction effects on the stored energy.