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Statistical multi‐path exposure method for assessing the whole‐body SAR in a heterogeneous human body model in a realistic environment
Author(s) -
Vermeeren Günter,
Joseph Wout,
Martens Luc
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
bioelectromagnetics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.435
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1521-186X
pISSN - 0197-8462
DOI - 10.1002/bem.21762
Subject(s) - homogeneous , specific absorption rate , spheroid , human body model , bioelectromagnetics , gsm , path loss , telecommunications link , computer science , physics , simulation , computational physics , telecommunications , statistical physics , chemistry , biochemistry , quantum mechanics , artificial intelligence , magnetic field , antenna (radio) , in vitro , wireless
Assessing the whole‐body absorption in a human in a realistic environment requires a statistical approach covering all possible exposure situations. This article describes the development of a statistical multi‐path exposure method for heterogeneous realistic human body models. The method is applied for the 6‐year‐old Virtual Family boy (VFB) exposed to the GSM downlink at 950 MHz. It is shown that the whole‐body SAR does not differ significantly over the different environments at an operating frequency of 950 MHz. Furthermore, the whole‐body SAR in the VFB for multi‐path exposure exceeds the whole‐body SAR for worst‐case single‐incident plane wave exposure by 3.6%. Moreover, the ICNIRP reference levels are not conservative with the basic restrictions in 0.3% of the exposure samples for the VFB at the GSM downlink of 950 MHz. The homogeneous spheroid with the dielectric properties of the head suggested by the IEC underestimates the absorption compared to realistic human body models. Moreover, the variation in the whole‐body SAR for realistic human body models is larger than for homogeneous spheroid models. This is mainly due to the heterogeneity of the tissues and the irregular shape of the realistic human body model compared to homogeneous spheroid human body models. Bioelectromagnetics 34:240–251, 2013. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.