Influence of ambient temperature on heat transfer in the human eye during exposure to electromagnetic fields at 900 MHz

Abstract

The topic of temperature increase in human tissue when exposed to EM fields, particularly those radiated to the eye, has been of interest for many years. This study presents a numerical analysis of the specific absorption rate (SAR) and the heat transfer in a heterogeneous two-dimensional human eye model exposed to TM-mode of electromagnetic (EM) fields of 900MHz at various power densities. In this study, the effects of ambient temperature and power density on the temperature distributions and fluid flow in the eye during exposure to electromagnetic fields were systematically investigated. The electric field, SAR, temperature distribution and fluid flow in various tissues in the eye during exposure to EM fields were obtained by numerical simulation of EM wave propagation and a heat transfer model. The heat transfer model was then developed based on the porous media theories. The study highlights heat transfer and fluid flow in the eye during exposure to EM fields at different ambient temperatures. This study indicated that when the eye exposed to EM fields at the frequency of 900MHz, the highest electric field intensity and SAR values at the chosen frequency was in the cornea. At the highest power density of 100mW/cm2, the absorbed EM energy is converted to heat causes a further increase of 3°C in corneal temperature in cases of hot, moderate and cold ambient temperatures. The result shows important information related to a complex interaction between ambient temperature, fluid flow and temperature distribution in the eye during exposure to electromagnetic fields. Moreover, this study also showed that the power density had a strong influence on the temperature increase and fluid flow in the eye.