Efficient Statistical Model for Predicting Electromagnetic Wave Distribution in Coupled Enclosures

Abstract: The Random Coupling Model (RCM) has been successfully applied to predicting the statistics of currents and voltages at ports in complex electromagnetic (EM) enclosures operating in the short wavelength limit. Recent studies have extended the RCM to systems of multi-mode aperture-coupled enclosures. However, as the size (as measured in wavelengths) of a coupling aperture grows, the coupling matrix used in the RCM increases as well, and the computation becomes more complex and time-consuming. A simple Power Balance Model (PWB) can provide fast predictions for the \textit{averaged} power density of waves inside electrically-large systems for a wide range of cavity and coupling scenarios. However, the important interference induced fluctuations of the wavefield retained in the RCM is absent in PWB. Here we aim to combine the best aspects of each model to create a hybrid treatment and study the EM fields in coupled enclosure systems. The proposed hybrid approach provides both mean and fluctuation information of the EM fields without the full computational complexity of coupled-cavity RCM. We compare the hybrid model predictions with experiments on linear cascades of over-moded cavities. We find good agreement over a set of different loss parameters and for different coupling strengths between cavities. The range of validity and applicability of the hybrid method are tested and discussed.