ISSN 1064-2269, Journal of Communications Technology and Electronics, 2020, Vol. 65, No. 5, pp. 457–464.

© Pleiades Publishing, Inc., 2020.

Russian Text © The Author(s), 2020, published in Radiotekhnika i Elektronika, 2020, Vol. 65, No. 5, pp. 419–426.

ELECTRODYNAMICS
AND WAVE PROPAGATION

Electromagnetic Exposure Study on a Human Located

inside the Car Using the Method of Auxiliary Sources
V. B. Jeladzea, b, *, T. R. Nozadzea, V. A. Tabatadzea, c, I. A. Petoev-Darsavelidzea,
M. M. Prishvina, and R. S. Zaridzea
aTbilisi State University, Laboratory of Applied Electrodynamics and Radio Engineering, Tbilisi, 0128 Georgia
b
Institute of Cybernetics, Tbilisi, Georgia
c
Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey
*e-mail: veriko.jeladze001@ens.tsu.edu.ge
Received November 27, 2017; revised January 16, 2018; accepted January 24, 2018

Abstract—The article studies the effect of the electromagnetic field of wireless communications on a human
inside a car in the frequency ranges of 450, 900, and 1800 MHz, corresponding to the operational range of
police radios and modern mobile phones. A comparative analysis of the influence of the Earth’s surface under
the car is presented. The results of numerical calculations using the Method of Auxiliary Sources show the
presence of resonance phenomena and a high reactive field inside the car, which leads to an undesirable
increase in the level of absorbed energy in human tissues.

DOI: 10.1134/S1064226920050034

INTRODUCTION ant. We study the properties of such resonance fields,

Today, an urgent task is to study the effects of elec-
tromagnetic fields from mobile phones or other forms
of wireless communications on human. The nature of
this effect depends on the properties of the field
sources, the body’s ability to absorb and accumulate
energy, the location of surrounding objects, and a
number of other factors [1–6]. In [7–10], the nature
of the field effect was considered depending on the
position of the hand and fingers when holding a
mobile phone. It is also important to consider the
location of the user—in an closed or semiclosed space.
In [11, 12], situations were studied when a human
was inside a room with a window and the field source
was a mobile phone or an external antenna from a base
station. Application of the Method of Auxiliary Sources
(MAS) made it possible to also simulate varying trans-
parency of the walls of the room. The results showed
the presence of high-amplitude resonance reactive
fields for a room with less transparency.
In this article, we consider situations when a
human model is in a car and the electromagnetic field
source is a mobile phone in close proximity to the
head. As is known, cars are made of metal and other
conductive materials that are less transparent to elec-
tromagnetic waves. At some frequencies, such a closed
metal structure behaves like a resonator, which leads
to the formation of a high-amplitude resonance field.
Such a field can negatively affect a human; therefore,
studying this problem for different situations and dif-
ferent values of the system parameters is very import-
as well as how Earth’s reflecting surface under the car
influences their formation.
As in previous studies [11–14], the problem is
solved using the MAS; the human model is a homoge-
neous dielectric with averaged values of the electrody-
namic parameters. In the car model under consider-
ation, the presence of wheels is neglected, since their
influence on the formation of the internal field is
insignificant.
The question of the formation of the resonance
field inside the car and the nature of the excited sur-
face currents was partially addressed in [14]. Whereas
it did not take into account the human model and the
influence of the Earth’s surface, the algorithm for
applying the MAS to open surfaces was described in
detail; this aspect is applied in the present study. It
should be noted that there are a number of other stud-
ies on this topic, which use various numerical methods
(see, e.g., [15, 16]). However, the question of how a
resonance reactive field influences a human has not
yet been completely studied.
1. THEORETICAL PART
Let us consider a model system consisting of a car
and a human inside it (Fig. 1). The incident electro-
magnetic field penetrates the entire system, and the
problem is to determine the fields that form inside and
outside the car, as well as inside the human. In this
model (Fig. 2), the car is an ideally conductive surface

457
458 JELADZE et al.

S S ′ S ′′

σw S0
S0′
z
S0′′
(III) (II) (I)
y
x

Fig. 1. Studied model.

S ′′′

S . It has open parts σw , w = 1,2,... in the form of win-

dows. The human model is a homogeneous lossy
dielectric bounded by a closed surface S0. The field
 
Einc, H inc from an internal source is considered given.
Fig. 2. Use of MAS taking into account Earth’s surface.
We need to determine the fields in three areas: outside
the car (I), inside the car (II), and inside the human
model (III). A more detailed description of applying numerical calculations. In this case, the minimum
the MAS to a similar problem is given in [14]. radius of curvature of the body surface determines the
Let us construct two pairs of auxiliary surfaces: S0' , maximum permissible distance of the auxiliary sur-
faces, which is in the range 0.2λ–0.3λ [14, 18, 19].
S0" , outside and inside a human; and S ' , S " , outside  
and inside the car, with auxiliary sources distributed The field E(I), H (I) in the first region is determined
on them. As auxiliary sources, we used two mutually by auxiliary sources on the surface S " :
perpendicularly oriented combined dipoles with

 (a E ( )
  (I)
),
N
unknown amplitudes oriented along the tangents to E(I) =
I
+ bnEcomb
'
n comb
the corresponding surface and generating fields
    n =1 S"

( ).
Ecomb, H comb and Ecomb ' , H comb
' [12, 17, 18]. Such  N
 (I)  (I)
sources are known to provide directional radiation. H ( I) = anH comb + bnH comb
'
n =1 S"
The number of auxiliary sources on the surfaces S0' and  
Since the source of the incident field Einc, H inc in the
S0" is equal to N 0, the number of collocation points on  
second region, the field E(II), H (II) consists of
the surface S0. Similarly, the number of auxiliary  
sources on the surfaces S ' and S " is equal to N , the Einc, H inc and the field determined by sources on sur-
number of collocation points on the surface S . The faces S ' and S0" :
numbers N 0 and N , which are auxiliary parameters,
 
 (c E (
  (II)
)
N
must be selected in advance, taking into account the II)
E(II) = Einc + n comb + dnEcomb
'
desired accuracy of the solution to the problem. Other n =1 S'

( ) ",
auxiliary parameters are distances δ'0 , δ"0 and δ', δ" of N0
 (II)  (II)
the auxiliary surfaces from the main ones (see Fig. 2). + emEcomb + fmEcomb
'
Since the structure under consideration has a com- m =1 S0

plex, convex–concave shape, the values of δ'0 , δ"0 and  

 (c H (
  (II)
)
N
II)
δ', δ" must be selected very carefully, taking into H (II) = H inc + n comb + dnH comb
'
n =1 S'
account the singularities of the analytic continuations
 (e H (
  (II)
)
N0
II)
of the scattered and intrinsic fields. + m comb + fmH comb
' .
Detailed studies of the nature of the singularities of m =1 S0"
analytic continuations of the internal (including  
In the third region, the field E(III), H (III) is determined
intrinsic) fields have shown that they are formed
exclusively by the surface of the body and are located by sources on the surface S0' (Fig. 2):
in the external region or along the edge of the open

(g
 (III)  (III)
),
N0
part of this surface. Singularities of the analytic con- E(III) = + hmEcomb
'
m E comb
tinuation of the external scattered field are located m =1 S0'
inside the body on a caustic surface. Studies have also

(g
 (III)  (III)
).
N0
shown that auxiliary surfaces should cover these sin- H (III) = m H comb + hmH comb
'
gularities, which minimizes the time and error of m =1 S0'

JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY AND ELECTRONICS Vol. 65 No. 5 2020

 ELECTROMAGNETIC EXPOSURE STUDY ON A HUMAN LOCATED INSIDE THE CAR
Unknown complex amplitudes an, bn , cn , dn , em, fm,
g m , hm of auxiliary sources, the total number of which
is 4 × ( N + N 0 ) , are determined from the boundary
conditions for the sought fields. On the surface S , just
like on a conductor, equality to zero of the tangent
 
component fields E(I) and E(II) should be fulfilled:
 
( E(I) ⋅ τ ) S = 0, ( E(II) ⋅ τ ) S = 0.
On the surfaces of windows σw , just like at the inter-
face between two dielectric media (with the same
parameters), the conditions for stitching the tangential
   
components of the fields E(I), E(II) and H (I), H (II) must
be satisfied:
 
( E(I) ⋅ τ) σw = ( E(II) ⋅ τ) σw ,
 
( H (I) ⋅ τ) σ = ( H (II) ⋅ τ) σ .
w w
On the surface S0 the conditions for stitching the tan-
   
gent component fields E(II), E(III) and H (II), H (III) must
be satisfied:
 
( E(II) ⋅ τ) S0 = ( E(III) ⋅ τ) S0 ,
 
( H (II) ⋅ τ) S = ( H (III) ⋅ τ) S .
0 0
Fulfillment of the above boundary conditions is

required along two independent tangent vectors τ1 and

τ2 to the corresponding surfaces. As a result of the rel-
atively unknown amplitudes, we obtain a system of
linear algebraic equations. After numerically solving
this system on a computer (using the standard Math
Kernel Library subprogram), the unknown fields are
determined in all indicated regions.
As noted above, it is of particular interest to study
the degree to which the Earth’s surface influences the
formation of resonance fields. We assume that the
Earth’s surface is an ideal plane conductor. This gives
us the right to apply the mirror image method to
describe the reflected field. According to the MAS, a
mirror image S ''' of an auxiliary surface S " is con-
structed with respect to the Earth (see Fig. 2). The
amplitudes of the auxiliary sources on the surface S '''
differ only in sign from the corresponding amplitudes
of the sources by S " . In other words, taking the Earth’s
surface into account does not change the total number
of unknown amplitudes of auxiliary sources deter-
mined from the boundary conditions.
2. RESULTS
OF NUMERICAL EXPERIMENTS
Using the described algorithm for the MAS, a soft-
ware package has been created that makes it possible to
change the parameters of the studied system and sim-
ulate various irradiation conditions. In numerical
JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY AND ELECTRONICS
459
experiments, the antenna from a mobile phone with a
power of 1 W was located inside the car, at a distance
of 2.5 cm to the left of the human’s head. The calcula-
tions were carried out near frequencies of 450, 900,
and 1800 MHz. The following dimensions of the
homogeneous human model were chosen: height
1.67 m, shoulder width 46 cm, head diameter 17.5 cm.
The average values of the real and imaginary parts of
the complex dielectric constant of the model were 44
and 0.9, respectively. The dimensions of the car body
were 4.10 × 1.76 × 1.57 m; ground clearance was
21 cm. Studies were carried out both with and without
allowance for reflection from the Earth’s surface. The
results showed that, ignoring reflection, the amplitude
of the internal field is smaller, which can be
explained by the ability of the radiated energy to be
distributed in all directions, including the area
under the car. In the results below, ref lection from
the Earth’s surface is taken into account, which is
closer to the real situation.
We studied the fields inside and outside the car, the
nature of the excited surface currents on the car, and
the distribution of the point coefficient of the
absorbed power level of the SAR (specific absorption
rate) inside the human model. The large dielectric
constant of the human body contributes to the intense
closure of the lines of force and the formation of a
high-amplitude internal field, which leads to heating
of tissue due to the high conductivity of the body.
The frequency dependences of the sum of the
squared currents that determine the field inside the car
were plotted. In the vicinity of the studied frequencies,
these frequency responses demonstrate pronounced
maxima, which corresponds to the phenomenon of
resonance. Obviously, small changes in the system
parameters (e.g., the shape of the car body) will lead to
some bias of the resonance frequencies found. How-
ever, the SAR and field amplitude values at resonance
will be of the same order.
We studied individual situations when the source of
the incident field is an external antenna from a base
station with a power of 80 W, which is at a distance of
20 m from the car and a height of 15 m above the
ground. In this case, the amplitude of the internal field
was two orders of magnitude smaller, which can be
explained by the low values of the antenna field even at
such a distance.
The calculation accuracy is determined by the
standard deviation from fulfillment of the boundary
conditions between the collocation points. However,
at the collocation points themselves, these conditions
are satisfied with fairly high accuracy (on the order of
10-16); in the intervals between them, there is a devia-
tion that reaches a maximum, as a rule, at midpoints.
By changing the values of the auxiliary parameters
(the number of collocation points and distance of aux-
Vol. 65 No. 5 2020
460 JELADZE et al.
ΣI2
1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
449.75 MHz
0 shallower depth and only the surface layer experiences
448.5 449.0 449.5 450.0 450.5 451.0 451.5 452.0
f, MHz
Fig. 3. Normalized frequency response of sum of squared
surface currents near frequency of 450 MHz.
iliary surfaces), this error can be controlled [14, 18].
Below, the error of the numerical results does not
exceed 10%.
2.1. Calculation Results
near a Frequency of 450 MHz
Figure 3 shows the frequency response of the max-
imum normalized sum of the squared currents excited
on the inner surface of the car near a frequency of
450 MHz, corresponding to the operating range of
police radios. For the above system parameters, reso-
nance is observed at a frequency of 449.8 MHz.
Obviously, there are other resonances in a wider
range. Figures 4a and 4b show the field distributions in
the longitudinal section and the corresponding distri-
bution of the point SAR at the indicated resonance
frequency. Compared with the similar distributions
(a)
Fig. 4. Near-field (a) and point SAR distribution within human (b) at resonance frequency.
JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY AND ELECTRONICS
presented in Figs. 5a and 5b for a nonresonance fre-
quency (451 MHz, see Fig. 3), the field amplitude
increases by an order of magnitude and the SAR value
increases by a factor of 5.
2.2. Calculation Results
near Frequency of 900 MHz
Figures 6a and 6b show the distribution of the
internal field and SAR for a frequency of 900 MHz.
Clearly, the field penetrates into the human body to a
an increase in SAR. Near 900 MHz, the frequency
response of the sum of the squared currents normalized
to the maximum was also plotted (Fig. 7), demonstrat-
ing resonance at a frequency of 899.9 MHz. Studies
have shown that at the resonance frequency, the values
of the field amplitudes and SAR increase by an order
of magnitude compared to 900 MHz (Figs. 8a, 8b).
2.3. Calculation Results
near a Frequency of 1800 MHz
Figures 9a and 9b show the distribution of the near
field and SAR at a frequency of 1800 MHz. Due to
high losses, the depth the field penetrates into the
human body is less than in previous cases. At this fre-
quency, absorption of electromagnetic energy will
mainly occur in the skin. The frequency response of
the normalized sum of squared currents plotted in a
narrow range near the considered frequency also
demonstrates resonance (Fig. 10). The constructed
internal field and SAR distributions (Figs. 11a, 11b)
show that at the resonance frequency, their values
increase eight- and fourfold, respectively.
For a more visual representation of how the car sur-
face acts as a resonator, point SAR values for two cases
(b)
E, arb. units SAR, W/kg
1.95 × 103 96.4
9.76 × 102 72.3
0 48.2
–9.76 × 102 24.1
–1.95 × 103 0
Vol. 65 No. 5 2020
 ELECTROMAGNETIC EXPOSURE STUDY ON A HUMAN LOCATED INSIDE THE CAR 461

(a) (b)
E, arb. units SAR, W/kg
2.02 × 102 22.8

1.01 × 102 17.1

0 11.4

–1.01 × 102 5.7

–2.02 × 102 0

Fig. 5. Near-field (a) and point SAR distribution within human (b) for nonresonance.

(a) (b)
E, arb. units SAR, W/kg
3.0 × 102 36.9

1.5 × 102 27.7

0 18.4

–1.5 × 102 9.2

–3.0 × 102 0

Fig. 6. Near-field (a) and point SAR distribution within human (b) at frequency of 900 MHz.

were compared: a human inside the car or in free

space. Figure 12 compares the SAR values in the vicin- ΣI2
ity of the three frequencies studied. The highest values 1.0
correspond to the case when a human inside the car is 0.8
exposed to radiation at the found resonance frequen-
cies, the average values correspond to a similar case 0.6
outside the resonance frequencies, and the lowest val-
ues correspond to the case of free space. From this we 0.4
can conclude what a negative impact the resonance
surface of the car can have on the human inside. These 0.2 899.9 MHz
results were compared with similar ones from [12],
0
which studied the effect of resonance fields on a 899.2 899.4 899.6 899.8 900.0 900.2 900.4 900.6 900.8
human inside a room. Figure 13 shows the results of f, MHz
this comparison in a diagram of SAR values. Clearly,
for frequencies of 450 and 900 MHz, the SAR values
in the case of a car are higher. This is because the sur- Fig. 7. Normalized frequency response of sum of squared
face of the car is less transparent than the walls of the surface currents near frequency of 900 MHz.

JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY AND ELECTRONICS Vol. 65 No. 5 2020

462 JELADZE et al.

(a) (b)
E, arb. units SAR, W/kg
7.22 × 103 2.96 × 102

3.61 × 103 2.22 × 102

0 1.48 × 102

–3.61 × 103 0.74 × 102

–7.22 × 103 0

Fig. 8. Near-field (a) and point SAR distribution within human (b) at resonance frequency.

(a) (b)
E, arb. units SAR, W/kg
5.05 × 105 35.2

2.52 × 105 28.7

0 19.1

–2.52 × 102 9.6

–5.05 × 102 0

Fig. 9. Near-field (a) and point SAR distribution within human (b) at frequency of 1800 MHz.

ΣI2 room (the transparency of which in this case was 0.22),

1.0 and the wavelength corresponds to the size of the win-
dows. As a result, the amplitudes of the resonance
0.8 field and, accordingly, the SAR inside the car are
higher. At a frequency of 1800 MHz, the SAR values
0.6 inside the car are less than inside the room. This is
0.4
because the car windows at this frequency are more
transparent (the wavelength is less than their size),
0.2 which prevents the formation of a high-amplitude
1800.35 MHz internal field.
0
1799.2 1799.6 1800.0 1800.4 1800.8 1801.0 Some of the results presented in this paper (e.g.,
f, MHz the exact resonance frequencies found) may vary
depending on the car’s shape, size, and other charac-
teristics. Obviously, for a higher Q-factor of the car as
Fig. 10. Normalized frequency response of sum of squared a resonator, the field amplitude and SAR values will
surface currents near frequency of 1800 MHz. also increase [12]. Therefore, it is necessary to mini-

JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY AND ELECTRONICS Vol. 65 No. 5 2020

 ELECTROMAGNETIC EXPOSURE STUDY ON A HUMAN LOCATED INSIDE THE CAR 463

(a) (b)
E, arb. units SAR, W/kg
4.23 × 103 127.0

2.11 × 103 95.0

0 63.4

–2.11 × 103 31.7

–4.23 × 103 0

Fig. 11. Near-field (a) and point SAR distribution within human (b) at resonance frequency.

SAR, W/kg
300 In a vehicle, at resonance SAR, W/kg
250
In a vehicle, out of resonance 300 In a vehicle,
In free space
at resonance
250
200 In a room,
200 at resonance
150
150
100
100
50
50
0
450 900 1800 0
f, MHz 450 900 1800 f, MHz

Fig. 12. Diagram comparing SAR values for human inside Fig. 13. Diagram comparing SAR values for human inside
car and in free space. car and in room.

mize the duration of mobile phone calls inside the car, FUNDING
as this will reduce the risk of a possible negative effect The study is financially supported by Shota Rustaveli
of the internal resonance field on a human. National Science Foundation research grant
No. YS15_2.12_56.

CONCLUSIONS
The Method of Auxiliary Sources was used to study
the exposure of the electromagnetic field of a mobile
phone’s antenna on a human inside a car. The calcu-
lations took into account the effect of Earth’s reflec-
tive surface under the car. The results showed that
high-amplitude reactive fields inside the car can lead
to a multiple increase in the SAR coefficient in human
tissues compared to values obtained in the free space.
It is recommended to reduce the duration of mobile
phone calls inside a car.
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