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Practical considerations of human exposure in railway systems

Conference Paper · May 2018

DOI: 10.1109/ISEMC.2018.8393732

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 Practical Considerations of Human Exposure in
Railway Systems
Shinichi Sadamitsu
Transportation Systems Division, Engineering Headquarters,
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd, Japan
Abstract -This paper presents some practice considerations in
human exposure, together with related safety aspects in ICNIRP,
in hearing aids and body wearable medical devices in railway
systems. On-board traction power and harmonic currents in the
third rail are sources commonly encountered for human
exposure, their compliance approach and related EMC
requirements are discussed and summarized.
Keywords—EMC Railways, human exposure, ICNIRP,
Hearing aids, Pacemakers.
I. INTRODUCTION
Large magnitude traction currents, including their
harmonic contents in railways have been an important and
challenging aspect in Human exposure. There are
requirements to carry out evaluation, measurement,
verifications, or demonstration of human exposure as safety
compliances. The International Commission on Non-Ionizing
Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) is commonly adopted for
human exposure in electromagnetic field (EMF) environment.
ICNIRP guidelines [1] provide the basic restriction
considerations of electric field, magnetic field, and EMF for
both occupational and for the general public, together with
specific consideration in SAR evaluation, body resonances,
body-induced current, and neuro-behavior.
Human exposure ± Human exposure in general is related
to emissions either on-board, along tracks and of the nature of
an intended radiator for the railway apparatus; they are
directly limited to both the radiated E and H field with a
recommendation of restriction of ICNIRP. Consideration of
specific concerns about human exposure of low frequency
magnetic field emission from high power equipment inside
substations is also included and illustrated with in-situ
Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) assessment.
There are also technical considerations and measurements
for railway systems under EN50500 [2] provision; frequencies
of up to 20 kHz are considered, and with deliberation of no
relevant field strengths are expected at higher frequencies
above 20kHz due to the physical nature of EMF-sources in the
railway environment. This paper focuses on the lower
frequency magnetic field radiation to human exposures.
Railway standards of EN50121 series prescribe the basic
EMC requirements for both emission and immunity for
electrical apparatus. Part 2 of EN50121 [3] governs this
emission of the whole railway system to the outside world and
978-1-5090-5997-3/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE
S W Leung, W K Lo, W N Sun
Department of Electronic Engineering
City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
eeswl@cityu.edu.hk
is also applicable to fixed power supply installations and
apparatus as in EN50121-5 [4]. A comparison between
emission limit between ICNIRP and EN50121 series is
presented in a later section of this paper.
Body wearable or implanted devices
Hearing Aids and pacemakers are also common human
safety considerations as body wearable devices, or implanted
devices in a railway environment:
Hearing Aids - Magnetic field is considered as a main EMI
risk affecting the normal function of hearing aids; it can be
referenced to the provision and discussion of EN60118-4 [5]
to their immunity performance for a general assessment of
hearing aids. There are locations, such as platform levels, on-
board vehicles, and in close proximity to traction power
suffering high magnetic field emissions to be considered.
Pacemakers - Magnetic field is also considered as a main
EMI risk affecting pacemakers; it can be referenced to the
provision and discussion of EN45502-2-1 [6]. The magnetic
field due to current conductors of High Voltage (HV) cable
configurations at power frequency radiations has been
summarized in [7] for the axis-symmetric human body model
with implanted cardiac pacemakers; it has been concluded that
for a trefoil configuration, there is no concern at normal
operations due to the magnetic field cancellations in general,
and this is also applicable to railway power stations of the
same configuration. In general it is considered that there is no
issue to human exposure with small line un-balance, or phase
un-balanced to any 3-phase HV systems in normal operations
of a trefoil configuration.
On-board vehicles and locations at nearby and inside
Power Distribution Stations are also issues to be considered.
These issues require specific attention, but it may not be
possible to be directly addressed by analysis. Often
verifications of human exposure within the basic restrictions
of ICNIRP are demonstrated in the post-installation stage or
prior to the commissioning stage. Some typical cases of
measurements related to ICNIRP, and EN60118-4 are
presented in the following sections for illustration.
II. HUMAN EXPOURES IN RAILWAY SYSTEM
Basic restrictions as per ICNIRP are illustrated in Fig. 1 in
terms of H-field radiations with a solid line; the derived
magnetic field strengths may also be estimated from electric
28
field strengths using the far-field relationship between E and H, transformers and switchgears of a traction power substation is
as per ICNIRP. illustrated. The maximum B is 0.2nT at 150k Hz and well
below the basic restriction [1] of 6.25ȣT.
Emission limits of a railway system under the provision of
EN50121 series in the frequency range of 150 kHz to 30MHz,
are compared also with the ICNIRP basic restrictions in Fig. 1. TABLE I. B FIELD OF 1.5KV SUPPLY SYSTEM INSIDE VEHICLE
Limits of emission from the railway system during train Measured results inside vehicle (Hong Kong)
operation is higher than emission from railway substations as Frequency
in EN50121-2, hence the dotted line in Fig.1 refers to the Range Maximum Frequency of B- Limit by
B-field (ȫ
ȫT) field (Hz) [1] (ȫ
ȫT)
higher emission limits to represent the worst case scenario.
15-30Hz 5.37 20 250
EN50121-2 series are generally referred to a measurement 45-65Hz 2.38 54 92.6
distance of 10m. There is a margin of about 40dB between 90-500Hz 0.03 295 16.9
ICNIRP and EN50121 series as observed in Fig. 1, it is 500-2000Hz 0.30 680 7.4
considered that there should be in general no concern of any 2-400kHz 0.74 2000 6.25
human exposure issues from railway apparatus due to
magnetic field radiation at lower frequency.
Regarding the human exposure concern to passengers from
intended radiators of high power, it can be considered that the
intended radiators are licensing apparatus with limited radiated
power covering the human exposure inherently, except at very
close proximity to the general public.

Fig. 2. B field next to the transformers and switchgears (Hong Kong)

III. HEARING AIDS CONSIDERATON DUE TO HARMONIC CURRENT

Fig. 1. Comparison between emission limits among ICNIRP, EN50121-2 and
EN50121-3-1 & EN50121-5
On-site EMC assessment is commonly adopted as a final
verification in EMC Compliances of the railway system as a
whole. The measurement procedures have been adopted under
the provision of EN50500, which specifies the magnetic field
levels generated by electronic and electrical apparatus in the
railway environment with respect to human exposure for
ICNIRP guidelines. The measurement results of B field at the
center inside vehicle of a typical 1.5kV DC electric system
with a motor output power of about 80 kW is presented in
Table I; the maximum magnetic field is 5.37ȣT at 20Hz, only
accounts for 2.15% of the basic restriction (250ȣT).
Often there are concerns raised about human exposure to
power equipment inside substations. Although measurements
inside substations are not an EMC requirement in railway
systems and are not regularly to be carried out as a common
practice, there were occasions that such scenarios have been
examined. In [8]-[12], it is reported that the measured
magnetic field is found to be lower than the limit
recommended by [1]. These results are in-line with Fig. 2
where typical values of a measured magnetic field next to the
DC traction current is also a common source in practice to
hearing aids; however they are mainly of transient phenomena
that high harmonic contents of DC traction current are only
found at acceleration, or at braking specifically of regenerative
types; these are of specific concern.
The high magnetic field emission detected by induction
loops or T-coils of hearing aids appearing as audio noise
degrading the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio of the hearing device
detection. Table II illustrates such a requirement of the S/N
ratio per EN60118-4 [5] in different scenarios. An audio S/N
ratio of 32 dB can be considered to be acceptable per Table II;
it is generally considered that 22 dB S/N ratio is also possible
with a short period of time, that the magnetic noise has no
significant undesirable tonal quality.
In consideration of magnetic field generated by traction
current particularly due to harmonics on the third rail and with
the known values of the traction current, the magnetic field H
can be directly evaluated by (1):
(1)
where H is the magnetic field in A/m; In is the current of
nth harmonic; d is the separation between the third rail and the
hearing aids.

29
 TABLE II. REQUIREMENT OF THE S/N RATIO IN DIFFERENT SCENARIO It is observed that most of the harmonics currents in Fig. 3
PER EN60118-4
are below 32dB S/N except that for the second and the sixth
Situations for different levels of magnetic noise S/N ratio harmonics which are found to be over the 22dB S/N. These
The aesthetic value of the speech is important and the 47 dB high levels of the harmonics of traction current are dominant
background acoustic noise level is very low, i.e. in theatres at low frequencies and can be considered as only temporary in
and similar locations
nature for accelerations and decelerations; it may be
In cases where communication takes priority over aesthetic 32 dB DFFHSWDEOHLQWKHVHVLWXDWLRQVWKDW³DKLJKHUOHYHORIPDJQHtic
considerations, a higher magnetic noise level may be
tolerable. It should also be considered that high levels of
field of interfering signal for momentary occurrencH´ZLWKWKH
magnetic background noise can be tiring and thus should provision of the EN60118-4.
only be tolerated where the communication is of a short
and essential nature
IV. PACEMAKERS
The magnetic noise has no significant undesirable tonal 22 dB
quality or is mostly at low frequencies, then a higher level The magnetic field of power frequency generated by the
of interfering signal may be tolerable for short period only railway system in substations, traction power, plant rooms, on-
board rolling stock and power risers may affect passengers and
staff with wearable or implanted medical devices. DC
Some typical values of harmonic currents from in-situ magnetic field is a key issue; we will focus mainly on the DC
measurement are presented in Table III to reveal the impact on field level of the impact on pacemakers for our discussion.
the hearing aids detection. Magnetic fields generated by Both EN45502-2-1 [6] and EN50500 cover the assessment
harmonic currents of DC tractions may be significant for some of the magnetic field on pacemakers. A limit of the magnetic
IGBT systems for a variable voltage drive for traction purpose field strength with a maximum of 1 mT is prescribed in
- values of some harmonic contents of DC traction current can EN45502-2-1 and is addressed as a strong static DC magnetic
be over 10% of the fundamental. field - the pacemaker shall not be affected by static magnetic
fields of flux density. This DC limit of 1 mT is considered as
TABLE III. EXAMPLES OF MEASURED HARMONICS ( SINGAPORE) the worst case scenario for EMC assessment in EN50500 at
various locations and operation conditions of a railway system.
Frequency 60 120 240 360 480 600
(Hz) On-site EMC assessments of DC magnetic fields have
Typical % per 2.47 100 0.57 110 2.47 1.33 been performed at locations including inside a vehicle, along
fundamental
720 840 960 1080 1200 1320
track, and next to power substations. The maximum DC
Frequency
(Hz) magnetic field 0.07mT is measured among those locations and
Typical % per 13.9 0.95 0.38 4.56 0.19 0.76 it can be considered that there is no safety issue as per the
fundamental provision of EN45502-2-1.

Fig. 3 illustrates the derived values of magnetic field by (1) V. CONCLUSION

with harmonic currents of Table III and d=1.7m of an average
separation of body height within the distance of the hearing
aids from the DC third rails. The 32dB and 22dB audio S/N
recommendations as per EN60118 are also illustrated for
comparison. 400mA/m magnetic field level is referenced to as
0dB; a magnetic noise level of 10 mA/m is hence equivalent to
32dB S/N ratio. 22dB S/N ratio is evaluated in a similar
manner and they are plotted in Fig. 3.
This paper reviewed some practical considerations of
Human Exposure in Railway Systems, with illustrations.
Specific concerns for human exposure under ICNIRP basic
restriction, hearing aids and Pacemakers are highlighted with
discussion.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The work described in this paper was supported by a grant
from the Hong Kong General Research Fund Project No:
9042343 (CityU 11254616).

(Audio S/N)
REFERENCES
[1] ICNIRP Guidelines for Limiting Exposure to Time-Varying Electric,
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[2] EN 50500, Measurement procedures of magnetic field levels generated
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[4] EN 50121-5, Railway applications ² Electromagnetic compatibility
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Fig. 3. Magnetic field strength against DC traction harmonic current apparatus, 2017.

30
[5] EN 60118-4, Electroacoustics ̾ Hearing aids Part 4: Induction-loop
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