Body-District Averaged-SAR in Female and Male Subjects Exposed to RF Plane Wave

Realistic numerical models of human subjects and of the surrounding environment represent the basic points of radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic dosimetry. This involves differentiating the human numerical models in women and men possibly with different body shapes and postures. Once the models are available, whole-body and body-district averaged Specific Absorption Rates (SARs) are the investigated distributions. Objective of this work is to compare the SARs of a female and a male exposed to plane wave in the range 0.1 - 4 GHz. For realizing the models, a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) tomographer to acquire images and a recent automatic technique, which avoids the discrete segmentation of body tissues into different types, were used. Simulations were performed with the Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) method, by a robust subgridding algorithm, which allows an abrupt mesh refinement by a factor up to 7. The results show that the averaged-SAR of the female model is higher than that of the male counterpart in the major part of the body districts, mainly because of a thicker subcutaneous fat layer. Only the head and neck district shows similar absorption. Since the automatic procedure used for the body acquisition does not detect the skin, the influence of this tissue, simulated by a layer numerically spread on the models, was also investigate