Validity of PEC approximation for on-body propagation

Many articles on on-body propagation assumes that the human body can be approximated by a perfect electric conductor (PEC) instead of the actual constitutive parameters of the human body, which is that of a lossy dielectric. This assumption is investigated in this article through comparison of the scattering of a plane wave at oblique incidence by a PEC and a lossy dielectric cylinder. The investigation shows that the validity of the assumption depends on the polarization of the plane wave, the angle of incidence, and the region of interest.