An analysis is given of the interaction between extremely low-frequency (ELF) electric fields and animals of arbitrary body shape. This analysis is based on three approximations which are valid in the ELF range: In living tissues, capacitive (displacement) currents are negligible compared to conduction currents; effects resulting from the finite velocity of propagation of electromagnetic fields are negligible; skin effect in living tissues is negligible. Major conclusions of the analysis are: (a) The electric field outside the body, the induced charge on the surface of the body, and the total current crossing any section through the body (eg, through the neck or limbs) are completely determined by the characteristics of the applied ELF electric field, the shape of the body, its location relative to ground and other conductors, and any conduction currents from the body to ground or other conductors. (b) All of the quantities in (a) can be measured using conducting animal models. (c) The magnitudes of the electric field outside the body and the induced charge density on the surface of the body are independent of frequency, in the ELF range, when the body is either insulated from or shorted to ground (and any other conductors in the system). (d) The only quantities affected by the electrical properties of the tissues comprising the body are the current density and electric field inside the body. (e) The electric field outside and inside a body will be unchanged by a scaled change in its size.

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Articles you may be interested inA hybrid fast-multipole technique for space-charge tracking with halos AIP Conf.

A number of systems containing space charge are analyzed using the transit-time technique developed in an earlier paper. (1) An inequality is derived for a room containing an air-ion generator which relates the ion source current to the minimum space-charge density. (2) Published wind-tunnel data are treated, and the characteristics of space-charge plumes produced downstream from localized corona and radioactive sources are explained. (3) Space-charge data published by other researchers can be evaluated; three examples are given, and in two of them published space-charge densities substantially exceed calculated upper-bound values. (4) Formulae are derived for the extrapolation of ground-level space-charge-density, electric field, and ion-current-density data to points above ground level; these formulae are useful for characterizing the three-dimensional environments in systems where only ground-level measurements are available. (5) A simple upper bound is derived for ground-level space-charge densities produced by high-voltage direct-current (HV dc) transmission lines, and it is shown that actual lines do produce densities closely approaching this upper-bound value. (6) The perturbed space-charge density at the surface of the body of an animal or human exposed to air ions and electric fields is estimated, and it is shown that perturbed and unperturbed space-charge densities are approximately equal for exposure conditions simulating those at ground level near HV dc transmission lines.

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