Numerical simulation of heart-current factors and electrical models of the human body

Contact with energized parts at different potentials may cause the circulation of body current and the possible inception of the ventricular fibrillation, which is generally considered the most life-threatening effect imposed on the cardiac muscle. The heart-current factors currently present in international standard have been determined thanks to measurements on cadavers, as well as experiments with volunteers. These methodologies are both questionable, as measurements depends on the nature of the probes and their position with respect to the heart; in addition, volunteers cannot obviously be exposed to dangerous levels of currents. Due to the aforementioned difficulties in experimental verifications, the authors propose the use of numerical techniques to investigate the behavior of the human body when is subject to electric fields. This work is based on a mathematical representation of the human anatomy, which takes into account the boundaries of the internal organs. The simulations carried out and documented in this paper, show results that do not entirely match the published IEC heart-current factors; most noticeably, for the pathways hands-feet, right hand-feet and left hand-right foot, the heart-current factors seem to be overestimated by the IEC.