Field modelling inside the body

C. Geuzaine, V. Beauvois, P. Dular, M. Graulich

The research project focused on understanding the link between the values of external ELF sources and the values of the electromagnetic fields inside the human body. Indeed, these internal fields are the ones to consider as far as biological effects are concerned. Since the main difficulty in assessing this link is the uncertainty on the values of the electromagnetic parameters of the body, a probabilistic solver was developed to characterize the probability density of the induced internal fields in terms of the electromagnetic parameters of the body, in particular the electrical conductivity. Realistic geometrical models of a full human body and of a detailed human head, which can be submitted to arbitrary virtual exposure of external electric and magnetic fields, were set up, and various scenarios (ambient magnetic field, contact voltage, contact current) were tested. The accuracy of the probabilistic results was confirmed using so-called “dual approaches”, which allow providing energy confidence bounds.