IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTROMAGNETIC COMPATIBILITY, VOL. 52, NO.

1, FEBRUARY 2010 75

A Wide-Frequency Model of Metal Foam

for Shielding Applications
Onofrio Losito, Member, IEEE, Domenico Barletta, and Vincenzo Dimiccoli

Abstract—The use of metal foam continues to grow in terms

of research and application. Recently, new developments in the
electromagnetic (EM) environment, such as shielding applications,
have been proposed. A model of metal foam shielding is devel-
oped and discussed in this paper to characterize and simulate the
EM shielding behavior. More specifically, the EM characteriza-
tion has been considered, and experimental shielding effectiveness
measurements have been performed. These new double wire-mesh
screens, obtained as a development of previously planar shields, al-
low the design of metal foam EM shields, showing good agreement
results among this model, some prototype of this model, and metal
foams. The good agreements among data pave the way to improve
the model for the low-frequency metal foams behavior.
Index Terms—Double shielding, metal foams, shielding effec- Fig. 1. Example of open cell aluminium foam.
tiveness (SE), wire-mesh screens.

I. INTRODUCTION
ETAL foams have attracted engineers worldwide for
M decades because of their incomparable combination of
lightweight structure, good acoustic and thermal isolation prop-
erties, strong impact absorption, and vibration damping capa-
bilities [1]. Recently, new developments in the electromagnetic
(EM) environment, such as shielding applications, will hope-
fully trigger the development of new applications and/or im-
provement of the existing ones.
Fig. 1 shows an example of an open cell aluminium foam.
We can note that its low apparent density and its capability to
allow both light and air transmission can be useful in several
applications.
The analysis of the shielding properties of different kinds
of metal foams discussed in [2] has shown that metal foams
are complex and random structures, which require sophisticated
numerical models that are computationally onerous, challenging
the development of metal foam analytical models.
From the rigorous and exhaustive overview of the most
adopted processes to make metal foams described in [1], we
have reported only a few, such as “gas-injection,” the easiest
to implement with aluminium alloy. Another interesting set of
Manuscript received December 4, 2008; revised May 10, 2009 and August
11, 2009. First published January 29, 2010; current version published February
18, 2010. This work was supported by POR 2002–2006, Regione-Puglia, Italy
(Axis III, measured 3.12 act. A, int. sp. A.1).
O. Losito was with ITEL Telecomunicazioni S. r. l., Ruvo di Puglia, Bari
70033, Italy. He is now with the Electromagnetics Fields Group, Department of
Electrotechnics and Electronic, Politecnico di Bari, Bari 70125, Italy (e-mail:
losito@deemail.poliba.it).
D. Barletta and V. Dimiccoli are with ITEL Telecomunicazioni S. r. l., Ruvo
di Puglia, Bari 70033, Italy (e-mail: d.barletta@itelte.it; v.dimiccoli@itelte.it).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TEMC.2009.2035109
0018-9375/$26.00 © 2010 IEEE
manufacturing methodologies is based on liquid-state process-
ing or metal deposition on cellular platform.
Apart from the adopted processes, the most important param-
eters of metal foam are the relative density and the pore size.
Relative (or apparent) density is the volume of foam material
relative to the volume of material in a solid block of the base
material, and it influences foam stiffness, strength, and both
electrical and thermal conductivity. Pore size represents instead
the pore dimension and is strongly connected to the number
of pores per linear inch (PPI), an important characteristic for
optical capacity, specific surface area, and fluid flow resistance.
Varying the values of PPI and relative density, it is possible to
obtain a different EM characteristics property.
The planar wire-mesh screen model, developed by Casey [3]
and compared with a commercial aluminium shield, perforated
periodically with apertures was a first step to solve the EM
problem in rigorous evaluation of the metal foam’s shielding
effectiveness (SE) [4]. Encouraged by the results, we have im-
proved the previously planar model and developed a new EM
model. Therefore, the EM shielding behavior of a metal foam
slab was investigated considering a shield model with double
wire-mesh layers, separated by an air space. The single screen,
whose meshes are assumed to be square is described by an
equivalent sheet impedance operator as mentioned in [3]. The
agreement of both experimental and theoretical data is a chal-
lenge to optimize this model.
In the following section, we have described the metal foams
model developed to predict their EM shielding behavior. In
Section IV, results obtained by CST Microwave Studio (CST
MS) simulations are described, in order to validate our model.
Section V describes the results given for experimental mea-
surements of a metal foam slab and the theoretical new model.
Finally, conclusions are drawn in Section VI.
76 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTROMAGNETIC COMPATIBILITY, VOL. 52, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 2010

Fig. 2. Geometry of an individual square wire-mesh. The wire junctions are

assumed to be bonded.
Fig. 3. Complete SE equation compared with the planar (2-D) model.

II. WIRE-MESH SCREEN MODEL

In the case where the mesh wires are perfectly conducting,
The analysis of complex foam structures is not possible with
we have [3]
simple numerical models and algorithms. Moreover, an accurate
analysis with numerical models is computationally onerous. A (2ωLs /Z0 )
SE = −20 log10  (4)
possible solution to improve the time of the computational anal- 1 + (2ωLs /Z0 )2
ysis of foams is the development of an analytical model, which
describes their EM behavior in a simple way. where Z0 is the free-space characteristic impedance.
The first step to develop the new model of metal foams for our Consider the equation for SE [6]
purposes is to modify a planar wire-mesh screen with bounded
SEdB = AdB + RdB + BdB . (5)
junction as mentioned in [4], using the same dimensions of
the ligaments and pore of a thin metal foam slab. The screen We know that A is the absorption loss of the wave for a screen
geometry is shown in Fig. 2. thickness much greater than a skin depth, which becomes
This laminated shield can be described electromagnetically
by an equivalent sheet impedance operator Zs , when the mesh AdB = 8.686αl (6)
dimensions are small compared to wavelength [3]. The operator where l is the thickness of the screen. For a wire-mesh screen,
Zs relates the tangential electric field Es to the surface current α is equal to
density on the screen as   2
2π f
Es = Zs × Js . α= 1− . (7)
(1) λc fc

The equivalent sheet impedance for a screen with square Moreover, R is the reflection loss term, and according to [6]
meshes of dimension as × as is it is equal to
 
 (1 + K)2 
 
Zs = (Zw as + jωLs )(I − nn) +
jωLs
∇s × ∇s RdB = 20 log10   (8)
(2)  4K 
2K0 εr
where K = Ls /Z0 for a wire-mesh screen.
where Zw is the internal impedance per unit length of the mesh
Finally, B represents the multiple-reflection loss term and as
wire, K0 is the free-space wavenumber, and ∇s denotes the
mentioned in [7] is equal to
surface del operator. I is the idem factor or identity dyadic, n is  
a unit vector normal to the surface occupied by the mesh, and BdB = 20 log10 1 − e−2α l e−j 2β l  . (9)
Ls the sheet inductance parameter is
In the previous planar model implementation, the B term
µ0 as
−1 had been neglected because it was assumed that most of the EM
Ls = ln 1 − e−2π r w /a s (3) field attenuation was due to the absorption and reflection (screen
2π
thickness is much greater than the skin depth). In fact, Fig. 3
where rw is the radius of the mesh wires. shows good agreement between the planar (2-D) SE (4), and
If we consider a plane wave, in order to evaluate the effec- the complete equation of SE (8). Therefore, it can be inferred
tiveness of a planar mesh screen, it is necessary to evaluate the that the planar model represents a good approximation of the
transmission coefficient. general SE equation.
LOSITO et al.: WIDE-FREQUENCY MODEL OF METAL FOAM FOR SHIELDING APPLICATIONS 77

Fig. 4. New model obtained from double wire-mesh screen sheets.

Fig. 5. SE (E-field) of the theoretical model with and without the B2 factor,
Nevertheless, the SE values of the planar model greatly under- compared with experimental data of metal foam slab Type I described in Table I.
estimate the SE of metal foam, as described in [8]. Therefore, we
have proposed a simple new model to approximate the shield-
ing behavior of a metal foam slab, considering the slab as a Remembering (5), if we consider the B factor for a double
shield with double wire-mesh layers, separated by an air space wire-mesh layers shield it can be written as [6]
(see Fig. 4). In this new model, l1 and l3 are the thickness of a Bdouble = B1 + B2 + B3 (16)
planar wire-mesh screen which correspond to the radius of the
mesh wires, while l2 , the air space, is equal to the thickness of where B1 and B3 represent the multiple reflections, which occur
metal foam slab. The radius of the planar wire-mesh screen, can in the two screens of thickness l1 and l3 , respectively, that are of
be obtained for a different kinds of metal foams by approxi- the same value because they are made with the same material.
mate formulas mentioned in [1], using the relative (or apparent) As said before, for a screen thickness much greater than the skin
density and the number of PPI of metal foam depth, B1 and B3 can be neglected.
Moreover, B2 , the thickness of the air space between the two
ρ ∼ 3rw2 screens cannot be neglected, therefore, considering (8) for a
= 2 (10)
ρs as double layers shield we can obtain, as shown in [6]
   
PPI × as + (PPI + 1) rw = 25.4. (11)  η l2 l2 
B2 = 20 log10 1 − 1 − 4 cos 4π − j sin 4π
Zw λ0 λ0 
(17)
The SE of a “good conductor” is given by [5] where l2 is the air space thickness, η is the screen impedance
η0 t (equal to Ls for our wire-mesh screen), and Zw = Z0 is the
SEsingle ∼
= 4 eδ . (12)
η free-space characteristic impedance (377 Ω).
Considering the B2 factor, our final model becomes
Considering a model with double shielding layers separated
by an air space, the thickness of each is equal to t/2. If we (2ωLs /Z0 )
SE = −40 log10  + B2 . (18)
disregard multiple reflections in this air space, the total SE is
1 + (2ωLs /Z0 )2
given by [9]
 2  2 It is clear, as shown in (14) that B2 is a periodic factor, which
∼ η0 t η0 t
allows to see in detail the frequency resonance of metal foam
SEdouble = 4 e 2 δ = 4 eδ . (13)
η η slab that is not visible in the equation of SE (14), as we can note
Thus, the “interface mismatched” contribution for a double in Fig. 5.
slab is the square of a single slab. Translating this result to a Increasing the number of PPI in our model, from (10) and
metal foam slab, we have a new SE model, which was given (11), we can note a reduction of a square wire-mesh dimen-
in [9] sion, and from (3) and (4), we can deduce, especially for high
frequency, a decrease in the SE value, as shown in Fig. 6.
2ωLs /Z0
SE = −40 log10
. (14) The good results of this model for high frequency encourage
1 + (2ωLs /Z0 )2 us to use this double wire-mesh screen as an approximate model
Therefore, the SE for a double layer shield can be written as to predict the SE for low frequency magnetic shield. Naturally,
the EM shielding behavior of a metal foam at a low frequency
SEdouble = 2SEsingle . (15) is different. In fact, in this case we can define the magnetic-field
78 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTROMAGNETIC COMPATIBILITY, VOL. 52, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 2010

Fig. 8. EMC box implemented with CST software.

Fig. 6. SE (E-field) of the theoretical model with PPI = 10 (low PPI) and PPI
= 20 (high PPI).

Fig. 9. Shielded EMC box implemented with CST software designed with
double wire-mesh geometry with as = 3 mm, rw = 0.4 mm, and l2 = 14 mm.

stant characteristic of the enclosure), with τe  τs , we have

Fig. 7. Parallel mesh shielding geometry.  
1 + jωτs
Tm (jω) = . (23)
1 + jωτe
shielding transfer function as [3]
To sum up the analytical model of a magnetic-field SE enclo-
magnetic field in the shielded region sure, SEm can be defined as [3]
Tm (jω) = . (19)
magnetic field in the absence of shield
SEm = −20 log10 |Tm (jω)| . (24)
Considering a plane wave, (19) can be written as [7]
SEm is nearly zero at frequencies below ω = 1/τe and prac-
 −1
jωµ0 tically uniform at frequencies above ω = 1/τs .
Tm (jω) = 1 + (20) Between these two frequencies, SEm increases at 20 dB per
nZs
decade. As described previously for a double wire-mesh screen,
where we can write (15) so that our new model becomes

n = 1 for the parallel-mesh geometry; 1 + (ωτs )2
n = 2 for the cylindrical geometry; SEm double = −20 log10 (25)
1 + (ωτe )2
n = 3 for the spherical geometry.
where τe is a double of a single shielding.
For our purpose, we can consider the parallel-mesh geometry,
as show in Fig. 7, because it can be compared with our model III. NUMERICAL SIMULATION
(see Fig. 4).
It is clear that the quantity a/n is simply the volume-to-surface The first step for the validation of our new model consisted
ratio, therefore, (20) becomes of the simulation of a double wire-mesh screen with CST MS.
 −1 An EMC box (40 cm × 30 cm × 35 cm) opened on one side
jωµ0 Ve was simulated and excited with a coaxial cable (see Fig. 8).
Tm (jω) = 1 + (21)
Zs Se The SE was calculated as the difference between E far-field
without a double wire-mesh screen and E far-field with a double
where Ve and Se indicate the volume and the surface area of the wire-mesh screen on the other side of the EMC box implemented
enclosure. used for the screen as the geometry shown in Fig. 2, with as
Now assuming that the mesh wires are sufficiently thin and rw obtained for different kinds of metal foams by (10) and
(Zw as ∼
= Rs ), Tm (jω) can be written as (11). The thickness of the air space l2 is equal to the thickness
Rs + jωLs of metal foam slab tested (see Fig. 9).
Tm (jω) ∼
= (22) The SE was evaluated at 30 cm from the end of the box
Rs + jωµ0 Ve /Se
source and at 1 m from the source. These simulated values were
where Rs = as /πrw2 σw . Defining τs = Ls /Rs (a time constant compared with our new model, obtaining good agreement, as
characteristic of the mesh), and τe = µ0 Ve /(Se Rs ) (a time con- shown in Fig. 10.
LOSITO et al.: WIDE-FREQUENCY MODEL OF METAL FOAM FOR SHIELDING APPLICATIONS
Fig. 10. Simulated and estimated SE (E-field) compared with experimental
data of metal foam slab Type I described in Table I.
The main difference among our model, full-wave CST model,
and the experimental data (see Fig. 10) is essentially in the
approximation of the random structure of metal foam, especially
for wider dimensions of metal foams with higher porosity that
also requires more computational time for CST simulation.
Moreover, low-frequency simulations have not been made
with CST MS, because of the onerous computational cost of the
tiny dimension of the new model compared with the wavelength
of the frequency range simulations. However, there is no reason
why our model cannot be applied to lower frequencies below
800 MHz. This in conclusion leads to prefer our model to the
CST model.
Finally, the agreement between theoretical and simulated be-
havior of SE and the simplicity of our new model paved the way
to make a physical double wire-mesh screen model. This op-
portunity led to compare the SE measurements of this physical
double screen with the SE of the metal foam slabs.
IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
In this section, we show the results of the measurements made
on different kinds of metal foams that were compared with our
model and with its physical model. Fig. 11 shows the electric-
field SE related to four open cell slabs 30 cm × 30 cm of 1.4 cm
thickness, while varying some structural properties according
to data summarized in Table I [2]. More specifically, Type I–IV
data have been experimentally obtained and measurements per-
formed in the range 10 kHz–20 GHz.
As commonly accepted, three different frequency ranges
have been identified (namely “low frequency,” “resonance,”
and “high frequency”), and in each one appropriate sources
have been used. The aluminium foam slabs have been carefully
adapted to an aperture of a shielding room and measurements
performed according to IEEE Standard 299-1997.
It is clear from Fig. 11 that all the studied slabs show good
shielding capability in the whole frequency range and especially
for frequencies up to 2 GHz. As expected, a SE reduction has
79
Fig. 11. SE measurements (E-field) for the aluminium foam slabs described
in Table I.
TABLE I
DUOCEL ALUMINIUM FOAMS TESTED
been found for higher frequencies, because of the effects of
the open cell nature of the considered aluminium foams. More-
over, some values of measured data were characterized of some
decibels of uncertainty.
To investigate the causes of uncertainly, we can consider
the unstable measure of the E field inside the shielding room
due to the small dimension of metal foam slabs tested, and
the different properties of different kind of antennas used in
the experimental measurement. More closely, by comparing the
SE values of aluminium foam slabs of Type II with those of
Type IV (see Fig. 12), it is apparent that for metal foams with
the same apparent density, shielding capabilities increase if PPI
increases. Moreover, when comparing slabs with the same PPI
but different relative density (Type III and Type IV, respectively),
lower shielding performance is measured for lower density slabs
(see Fig. 13).
This is in agreement with that shown for mechanical
properties; i.e., increasing porosity for most properties, in-
cluding strength, stiffness, and conductivity increases then
exponentially.
The previous results were compared with our new model
results (see Fig. 14) using the same total thickness of metal
foam slab for our model.
We can see the agreement of the EM behavior of metal foams
with our model. Moreover, it is clear how this model can ac-
curately predict the worst SE results at the first resonance of
the EMC box (just over 8 GHz). It is known that smaller boxes
resonate at higher frequency, therefore, making the box small
80 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTROMAGNETIC COMPATIBILITY, VOL. 52, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 2010
Fig. 12. SE measurements (E-field) for the aluminium foam slabs Type II and
Type IV described in Table I.
Fig. 13. SE measurements (E-field) for the aluminium foam slabs Type III
and Type IV described in Table I.
Fig. 14. SE measurements (E-field) for the aluminium slabs described in
Table I compared with the theoretical model.
Fig. 15. Physical implementation of our model.
Fig. 16. SE measurements (E-field) for iron and brass double wire-mesh
screens compared with theoretical values of the our model and with metal foam
Type II.
enough to push the first resonance above the upper limit of the
test frequency range. The physical realization of our model was
made by using a wooden support (30 × 30 × 1.4 cm), cov-
ered by a double wire-mesh grid with as and rw of 3 mm and
0.4 mm, respectively [see Fig. 15(a)–(b)].
Two screens were created by covering the wooden support
first with an iron double wire-mesh grid and second with a brass
double wire-mesh grid. The experimental measures of these
physical models were compared with metal foam Type II, and
our model, using the same geometrical parameter of the physical
double wire-mesh grid, showing good agreement as shown in
Fig. 16.
It is also clear from Fig. 16 that the EM performance of a
metal foam slab is comparable with a physical double wire-mesh
screen, so the prototypes of our model can be considered as per-
forming an analytical characterization of metal foams. Finally,
we compared the experimental magnetic SE of our prototypes
with the first approach for a low-frequency model described in
(25), obtaining the results shown in Fig. 17.
We can see that our low-frequency model has the same trend
as the experimental SEm results of metal foam slab Type II,
but are not completely in agreement, because the analytical
model is the first approximation of the low-frequency behavior
of metal foam. However, from Fig. 17 we can also see the good
LOSITO et al.: WIDE-FREQUENCY MODEL OF METAL FOAM FOR SHIELDING APPLICATIONS
Fig. 17. SE measurements (H-field) for iron and brass double wire-mesh
screens compared with theoretical values of the low-frequency model and with
metal foams Type II.
agreement of the metal foam slab Type II, with iron and brass
double wire-mesh screens. This paves the way to improve the
analytical study of the model for low frequency.
V. CONCLUSION
We have considered a variety of relevant topics to understand
the problem of the EM characterization of metal foams for
their use in radio-frequency EM shields and for low-frequency
shields. We have discussed the experimental results about the
SE of some specific types of open cell aluminium foam slabs,
showing good shielding properties over a large frequency range.
Moreover, to describe the analytical behavior of metal foams, we
have presented a new double wire-mesh screen model, obtained
as a development of the model proposed by Casey and discussed
in [4]. The proposed model was validated by numerical simula-
tions that is obtained by using CST MS. The possibility to easily
obtain a physical model of the analytical one, led us to make
a prototype of a double wire-mesh screen by using a wooden
support covered by two kinds of metallic grid, i.e., iron and
brass. The theoretical data of our model compared with experi-
mental results show strong agreement between metal foams and
double wire-mesh screens. The same agreement was seen be-
tween experimental and theoretical results for metal foams and
prototypes of our model, so that these prototypes can be con-
sidered as performing an analytical characterization of metal
foams. Finally, the good agreement of our model theoretical
data, compared with experimental results for SE at low frequen-
cies, encourages the optimization of this model, requiring an
analytical improvement.
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[7] K. S. H. Lee, Ed. “EMP interation: Principles, techniques, and reference
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Onofrio Losito (M’08) was born in Molfetta, Bari,
Italy. He received the M.Sc. degree in electronic en-
gineering from the Politecnico di Bari, Bari, in 2002,
and the Ph.D. degree in information engineering from
the Università del Salento, Leece, Italy, in September
2007.
Since 1999, he has been engaged in the tech-
niques of installation for systems of telecommunica-
tions and measures of electromagnetic (EM) fields
with the high schools as an outside expert. In 2007,
he joined ITEL Telecommunication S. r. l., Ruvo di
Puglia, Bari, as a Researcher in the ITEL Laboratory of Electromagnetic Com-
patibility. He is currently with the Electromagnetics Fields Group, Department
of Electrotechnics and Electronic, Politecnico di Bari. His research interests
include the analysis and design of 1-D and periodic leaky wave antennas, mi-
crowave filters, and EM shieldings, for radio frequency.
Domenico Barletta was born in Canosa di Puglia,
Bari, Italy, on January 7, 1971. He received the M.Sc.
degree in electronic engineering from the Politecnico
di Torino, Torino, Italy, in 1998.
In 1999, he joined ITEL Telecomunicazioni S. r.
l., Ruvo di Puglia, Bari, as a Research Engineer in the
ITEL Laboratory of Electromagnetic Compatibility,
where he became Manager of Prevention and Protec-
tion, in 2006 and Quality Assurance/Environmental
Health and Safety Manager in 2008. He has been co-
ordinating projects and operative activity in 30 coun-
tries in the area of shielding for magnetic resonance and tests of electromagnetic
compatibility and electrical safety.
Vincenzo Dimiccoli was born in Barletta, Italy, on
April 7, 1972. He received the M.Sc. degree in elec-
tronic engineering from the Politecnico di Bari, Bari,
Italy, in 1999.
In 1999, he joined ITEL Telecomunicazioni S. r.
l., Ruvo di Puglia, Bari, a company set up in 1982
with diversified activities in various sectors related to
electromagnetic (EM) impact, shielding for magnetic
resonance for civil and military purposes, and tests of
EM compatibility and electrical safety, as a Project
Engineer and became Engineering Division Manager
in 2006. He has been coordinating research projects with several Italian univer-
sities and industrial districts, increasing its scientific publications.