Finite difference time domain method to investigate electromagnetic field effects in human body

Abstract

Maxwell’s equations are implemented using Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) method to investigate the radiation effects in human body. Flat Phantom Model for human body is proposed using incident electric fields and Perfect Matched Layers (PML) boundary conditions. The proposed model has been implemented in Matlab Codes. The electric field distribution and Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) are calculated for all possible human organs using the measured electric field intensity at 900MHz, 1800MHz and 2.4GHz at International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), Gombak Campus. The values predicted by proposed method are found close to those calculated by the commercial Remcom Inc Software, XFDTD6.4. The effect of SAR has been predicted for different organs using proposed model. It is observed that the effect is higher in higher frequencies and the organ affects worse is brain. The SAR predicted by the proposed model for measured radiated fields at aforementioned frequencies are compared with safety guidelines given by the recognized body such as ANSI/IEEE, ICNIRP and Malaysia Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).The predicted SAR is found 0.083W/Kg at 900MHz, 0.751W/Kg at 1800MHz and 1.434W/Kg at 2.4GHz which are 4.2%, 37.6% and 71.7% respectively of safety limits proposed by ICNIRP. The preliminary results show that the campus is safer for its inhabitants.