Estimating the Unloaded Quality Factor of Reverberation Chambers Using the Effective Conductivity Model

Estimating the quality (
$Q$
) factor of an unloaded reverberation chamber (RC) is a challenging problem in practice. To answer this question conservatively and confidently, this paper reviews the measured unloaded
$Q$
factors of 38 RCs worldwide. The effective wall conductivities are summarized from the reported measurement results. Broadband
$Q$
factors of RCs from the same supplier but with different dimensions are highlighted to compare. The measurement results show that the effective wall conductivity is frequency dependent and the dependency behaves in a similar way. The empirical values of the effective wall conductivity are extracted to estimate the unloaded
$Q$
factors conservatively.