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EMF Shielding by Building Materials

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) conducted tests on how common building materials attenuate (shield) electromagnetic fields from 500 MHz to 8 GHz. The tests showed that to achieve 99% or better shielding, walls would need to be made of 8 inches of solid concrete, 18 inches of solid lumber, or 24 inches of hollow concrete blocks. Other materials like drywall, glass, and typical brick walls provide very little shielding unless used in very thick amounts. Metals provide the best shielding but were not tested in the study.

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274 views5 pages

EMF Shielding by Building Materials

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) conducted tests on how common building materials attenuate (shield) electromagnetic fields from 500 MHz to 8 GHz. The tests showed that to achieve 99% or better shielding, walls would need to be made of 8 inches of solid concrete, 18 inches of solid lumber, or 24 inches of hollow concrete blocks. Other materials like drywall, glass, and typical brick walls provide very little shielding unless used in very thick amounts. Metals provide the best shielding but were not tested in the study.

Uploaded by

fyysikko
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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EMF shielding by building materials

Attenuation of microwave band electromagnetic fields by common


building materials

The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) conducted in


1997 extensive tests of how various common building materials can shield
(dampen) electromagnetic fields. A wide range of materials and thicknesses were
tested, such as bricks, concrete, lumber, drywall, plywood, glass and rebar.

The tests were conducted for frequencies from 500 megahertz to 8 gigahertz. This
range covers emissions from cell phone towers, 3G, 4G, LTE, Wi-Fi, DECT,
cordless phones, digital television, GPS, wireless smart meters, baby monitors and
many other devices.

The frequency bands used by broadcast radio (AM, FM, shortwave, etc.) were not
covered. Since they are lower frequencies, it is reasonable to expect less shielding
of these types of signals than demonstrated in these tests.

The reason NIST did these extensive tests was to prepare for future generations of
wireless control systems at construction sites, as well as for tools to measure the
thickness of walls. It was not related to protecting the public health against EMF.

In general, these tests show that standard building materials provide poor
shielding. To get a shielding effect worth considering (i.e. 99% or better) one
would need a wall made of:

• 8 inches of solid concrete; or


• 18 inches of solid lumber; or
• 24 inches of hollow-core concrete blocks

Brick walls have to be unrealistically thick to be useful.

Other materials, such as windows and drywall, are essentially fully transparent to
radio waves.

Reinforcing a concrete wall with steel rebar did not really improve the shielding,
at least at the standard grid sizes.

Metals are far superior as shielding materials. Unfortunately, NIST did not test
any steel or aluminum siding, or low-E glass, which all have shielding effects.
2 Shielding by building materials

Whereas metallic shielding mostly reflects EMF, non-metallic materials mostly


absorb EMF. As some sensitive people do not do well inside metallic shields, the
non-metallic materials do have their place.

When considering a shielded room or house, the weakest link in the chain
determines the overall shielding. Even the best shielded wall has little effect if the
radio waves can travel through the window, door, roof, etc.

Peter Pauli and Dietrich Moldan from Universitaet Der Bundeswehr, Germany,
have later tested several additional building materials.

The results of the testing


The NIST report provides very extensive and detailed information. The following
is a condensed and simplified extract of the NIST data.

The tables show the attenuation of high frequency electromagnetic radiation in


decibels, relative to unrestricted passage.

The decibels are calculated as:

dB = 10 * LOG (reduction factor)

If the signal strength is reduced by a factor of 10 (i.e. 90% reduction), then the
decibel number is 10.

factor reduction decibel


10 90% 10
100 99% 20
1000 99.9% 30
10,000 99.99% 40

For shielding of humans against EMF, these are the magnitudes that are relevant.
On this scale, only thick concrete and very thick lumber (logs) are of any practical
interest.

The shielding values do vary with the frequency, with the materials mostly
performing better at higher frequencies. However, that is not always the case.
Shielding by building materials 3

Concrete
Eight concrete mixes were tested, which gave some variation in the attenuation as
shown. These are for concrete that has no rebar reinforcement.

Concrete 500 MHz 1 GHz 2 GHz 5 GHz 8 GHz


102 mm (4”) 7 – 11 11 – 14 13 – 18 17 – 25 22 – 23
203 mm (8”) 17 – 25 22 – 28 29 – 35 48 – 56 58 – 73
305 mm (12”) 31 – 45 33 – 45 36 – 43 74 – 85 87 – 96

All tables show the shielding effect in decibels. 20 dB = 99%, 40 dB = 99.99%.

Reinforced concrete
Concrete reinforced with a mesh of steel rebar is not really better than plain
concrete. The report tested two standard mesh sizes (70 mm and 140 mm between
rebars) and compared with a concrete wall without rebar. 19 mm (3/4”) thick
rebar was used on a 203 mm (4”) thick concrete wall.

Concrete
203 mm (4”) 500 MHz 1 GHz 2 GHz 5 GHz 8 GHz
without 23 27 35 55 73
rebar
with rebar 23 27 31 53 68
140mm OC
with rebar 26 30 37 56 71
70 mm OC

Concrete blocks
Concrete blocks with hollow cavities inside were tested for walls one, two and
three blocks thick. The study did not test the shielding value of the blocks if filled
with concrete. It would probably be less than a solid concrete wall of the same
thickness.
4 Shielding by building materials

Masonry block 500 MHz 1 GHz 2 GHz 5 GHz 8 GHz


(concrete block)
203 mm (8”) 8 12 11 15 18
406 mm (16”) 13 17 18 27 30
609 mm (24”) 26 28 30 39 39

Lumber
Regular lumber in thickness up to six inches was tested. The wood was either
spruce, pine or fir, which are the typical sorts used in North America. Heavier
types of wood, such as oak, may have a better shielding effect.

A log house built of massive and dense logs may provide useful shielding.

Dry lumber 500 MHz 1 GHz 2 GHz 5 GHz 8 GHz


38 mm (1.5”) 2 3 3.3 4 4
76 mm (3”) 1.5 3 4.7 8 9
152 mm (6”) 4.5 6 8.5 20 25

Bricks
Brick walls consisting of one, two or three bricks were tested. Even three courses
of bricks do not provide much useful shielding, except at the highest frequencies.

Brick 500 MHz 1 GHz 2 GHz 5 GHz 8 GHz


89 mm (1 brick) 0 3.5 5.5 15 16
178 mm (2 bricks) 3.5 5.5 7.5 32 14
267 mm (3 bricks) 4 7 10.5 32 27
Shielding by building materials 5

Glass panels
Glass window panels with regular clear glass were tested. Low-E windows have a
very thin metallic film on the glass, which should provide some shielding, but this
type of window was not tested in this study.

Glass panels 500 MHz 1 GHz 2 GHz 5 GHz 8 GHz


6 mm (1/4”) 0 0.8 1.4 1 1.5
13 mm (1/2”) 1.2 2.2 3.4 0 1.6

Drywall
Drywall consists of 85-95% gypsum. The rest is mainly paper and various
chemical additives. Drywall has no shielding effect.

Drywall 500 MHz 1 GHz 2 GHz 5 GHz 8 GHz


6 mm (1/4”) 0.1 0.3 0.6 0 0.4
13 mm (1/2”) 0.1 0.3 0.6 0 0.4

Keywords: RF, microwave, shielding, building materials, NIST

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