Realistic Computational Modeling of Biothermal Effects Inside Human Head Exposed to Mobile Phone Radiation

Abstract

The recent development of smartphones and the introduction of newer mobile phone networks led to increasing concerns over the prolonged exposure of delicate human organs to mobile phone radiation. This study investigates the Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) and temperature distributions inside anatomical head model exposed to mobile phone radiation. The effects of different microwave frequencies (0.9, 1.8, and 3 GHz) and different antenna positions (voice and video calling positions) were studied. The propagation, penetration, and absorption equations of the microwave radiation as well as the bioheat equation were numerically solved inside the computational domain. The numerical results of the present study were verified by comparison to other published numerical solutions. The Peak overall SAR and temperature rise were found in the voice calling position for the 3 GHz frequency as 14.9 W/kg and 1.6 °C, respectively. The model showed negligible peak SAR and temperature rise values for the video calling position. Moreover, the peak SAR and temperature rise locations are not correlated. Additionally, the temperature rise exceeded 63% of the final value at 6 minutes of exposure time for all the studied microwave frequencies.

Keywords

• electromagnetic radiation
• heat transfer
• temperature distribution
• human head
• mobile phone