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We study some effective transmission conditions able to reproduce the effect of a periodic array of Dirichlet wires on wave propagation, in particular when the array delimits an acoustic Faraday cage able to resonate. In the study of Hewett & Hewitt (2016 Proc. R. Soc. A 472 , 20160062 ( doi:10.1098/rspa.2016.0062 )) different transmission conditions emerge from the asymptotic analysis whose validity depends on the frequency, specifically the distance to a resonance frequency of the cage. In practice, dealing with such conditions is difficult, especially if the problem is set in the time domain. In the present study, we demonstrate the validity of a simpler unified model derived in Marigo & Maurel (2016 Proc. R. Soc. A 472 , 20160068 ( doi:10.1098/rspa.2016.0068 )), where unified means valid whatever the distance to the resonance frequencies. The effectiveness of the model is discussed in the harmonic regime owing to explicit solutions. It is also exemplified in the time domain, where a formulation guaranteeing the stability of the numerical scheme has been implemented.

We present a mathematical study of two-dimensional electrostatic and electromagnetic shielding by a cage of conducting wires (the so-called `Faraday cage effect'). Taking the limit as the number of wires in the cage tends to infinity we use the asymptotic method of multiple scales to derive continuum models for the shielding, involving homogenized boundary conditions on an effective cage boundary. We show how the resulting models depend on key cage parameters such as the size and shape of the wires, and, in the electromagnetic case, on the frequency and polarisation of the incident field. In the electromagnetic case there are resonance effects, whereby at frequencies close to the natural frequencies of the equivalent solid shell, the presence of the cage actually amplifies the incident field, rather than shielding it. By appropriately modifying the continuum model we calculate the modified resonant frequencies, and their associated peak amplitudes. We discuss applications to radiation containment in microwave ovens and acoustic scattering by perforated shells., Comment: This revised version corrects some errors present in the journal published version