Second-order statistics of complex observables in fully stochastic electromagnetic interactions : applications to EMC

The usefulness of stochastic methods to efficiently quantify uncertainties in computational models of electromagnetic interactions is illustrated. A refined study of the second-order moments of a complex-valued Thévenin model, which represents the coupling between a wire structure and a time-harmonic electromagnetic field, is presented. The configuration of a stochastically undulating thin wire illuminated by a stochastic incident plane wave is investigated in detail. Three computational methods are used to evaluate the mean values and covariance coefficients of the observable: a straightforward Cartesian-product quadrature method, a Monte-Carlo method, and a space-filling-curve method. The underlying patterns of the randomness are revealed by analyzing the covariance matrix' principal components. The study of this interaction configuration shows some general characteristics, which are expected to show up in any stochastic electromagnetic interaction problem. In particular, the results indicate that fluctuations in self-interaction coefficients (impedances) have distinct features and are quite different from the coefficients describing the interaction with externally generated fields (voltages).