On the field uniformity of reverberation chambers – a global sensitivity analysis study

Purpose Global sensitivity analysis (SA) by means of Sobol’ indices enhanced with different surrogate modeling techniques is performed in this work. The purpose is to investigate the influence of measurement uncertainties and the environment characteristics themselves on the desired field uniformity in reverberation chambers (RCs). This yields an efficient apparatus for the stirring and chamber design process. Design/methodology/approach The technique of Sobol’ indices, as a candidate of global SA methods, is suitable for high fluctuations due to its robustness, which can be addressed to the stochastic nature of the RC environment. The aim of using surrogate modeling techniques is to compute the indices efficiently with a moderate number of required simulations. The powerfulness of this approach is introduced in a simple numerical example in which the physical phenomena can be identified more straightforwardly. Findings This method can provide useful knowledge in the lower frequency range, where the ideal properties of the electromagnetic field in RCs cannot be established, and the importance of the setup parameters can vary from configuration to configuration. In addition, it can serve as a basis for setup adaptation during parallelized electromagnetic compatibility tests, which would result in a more time- and cost-saving option in industrial applications in the future. Originality/value Despite the previous attempts, a profound investigation of multiple setup parameters is still a hot topic. The main contribution of this work is the extension of the application area of the method of Sobol’ indices to RCs, which has not been done so far.