Induced currents in the human body resulting from the proximity to surfaces at fixed potentials

The paper evaluates the currents induced in the human body when exposed to extremely low frequency (60 Hz) electric fields by numerical modelling with boundary elements. The exposure is driven by the voltage of a rectangular panel representing the control keyboard of a power substation room. The main focus is to study the variations of the current density along the vertical axis of the body when located at different distances from the panel. In addition, the sensitivity of the results for the current density when considering the human body with and without its internal organs is estimated. The numerical approach is based on the three dimensional boundary element method (BEM) with the kernel of Laplace equation, in which the human body model considered is a simplified representation which allows parametric modifications of its geometry and physical properties.