Assessment of RF Electromagnetic Exposure to Car Driver from Monopole Array Antennas in V2V Communications Considering Thermal Characteristics.

Abstract

Vehicles are rapidly evolving into objects of intelligent interconnection. Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communications enable the interconnection between vehicles, while also leading to new electromagnetic exposure scenarios. This paper integrates a monopole array antenna into a shark-fin antenna on the car roof for V2V communications and evaluates the specific absorption rate (SAR) and temperature rise of a human body in a smart mobility communication scenario operating at 5.9 GHz. The V2V antenna is modeled and placed on a 3D vehicle model using COMSOL Multiphysics (v.6.2) to numerically estimate the SAR in the head and body regions of the human body model (adult male) inside the vehicle. Both the localized and whole-body 30 min average SAR are lower than the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) occupational restrictions for electromagnetic field exposure from 100 kHz to 6 GHz, being equal in the worst-case scenario to 0.981 W/kg (for the head), which is 9.81% of the ICNIRP limit (10 W/kg), and 0.008728 W/kg (for the whole-body average), which is 2.18% of the ICNIRP limit (0.4 W/kg). The 30 min average human core temperature rise is 0.055 °C, which is 5.5% of the ICNIRP limit. This indicates that, in typical automotive scenarios, the electromagnetic exposure from a monopole array antenna for V2V communications does not pose threat to the human body. This study provides knowledge related to emerging exposure scenarios in intelligent mobility communication, which is beneficial for evaluating possible health impacts and designing public health management policies.