Analysis of air ions in biological exposure systems, near HV dc electric power transmission lines, in rooms containing ion generators, and near exposed humans and animals

Abstract

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.