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 hu- man 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 rever- berant 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 en- closures. It also correlates directly with the electromagnetic expo- sure of occupants of reverberant environments. The average absorption cross section of nine subjects was measured at fre- quencies 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 simu- lations, but are obtained much more rapidly. We have used the obtained values of absorption cross section to estimate the effect of passengers on the Q-factor of a typical airliner cabin. Index Terms—reverberation chamber, absorption cross-