Numerical Verification of the Applicability of the Effective Medium Theory With Respect to Dielectric Properties of Biological Tissue

Especially in the THz region, little data is available regarding material properties based on measurements. It has been argued that the effective medium theory could provide a useful tool to estimate material data needed for electromagnetic field computations. In this paper, two numerical approaches are presented to test the applicability of the effective medium theory (EMT) with special regard to mm- and sub-mm-wavelengths. One approach is based on the well-known free-space method and the other one on a power loss evaluation scheme. Within the scope of application of the free-space method, the usability of the EMT is proven for two sets of dielectric tissue parameters on a longitudinally homogeneous and transversely structured sample. Moreover, power loss evaluation is a suitable method to show the applicability of the EMT. Analysis of layered models at 1–10 THz confirms that the EMT is a suitable tool to develop equivalent homogenized models with maximum errors for the dissipated powers of about 1%. In a more realistic example for a physiological fluid with spherical inclusions, the EMT yields an error of less than 1%.