Evaluating the Invisible: Development of a Novel Measurement Protocol for Human Exposure to Low Frequency Magnetic Fields in Heavy Commercial Vehicles and Evaluation of Scania Vehicles

Sammanfattning

Electric vehicles are becoming increasingly popular as a mode of transport. Sales of electric vehicles in heavy transport (buses and trucks) are also increasing although fewer models are available in the market at the moment. As battery electric vehicles deployment increases, it is becoming imperative to perform risk assessments on them to ensure safety for passengers and drivers. One of the avenues of potential risk to human health is electromagnetic fields being produced in heavy vehicles. Scania AB is a major provider of heavy transport solutions in Sweden. This project undertook development of a new measurement protocol for evaluating human exposure to low frequency magnetic fields in Scania’s heavy vehicles. An iterative approach was adopted in this project where the first iteration of a measurement protocol for magnetic fields was developed based on the IEC 62764-1:2022 standard and then pilot tested on various battery electric vehicles and subsequently developed. 6 iterations of the measurement protocol were tested on one diesel truck, two battery electric trucks and two battery electric buses. Testing was done on Scania Test track and in an anechoic chamber of the Automotive Wireless Test Facility, RISE Borås. The ICNIRP Guidelines for Limiting Exposure to Time Varying EMFs (ICNIRP, 1998) were chosen as the evaluation criteria for human exposure. Pilot testing of the measurement protocol on electric vehicles in this project showed that the human exposure is comparable to values previously reported in literature. 90 percent of the recorded values were lower than xx percent of the ICNIRP 1998 reference levels. The highest exposure recorded was for a battery electric bus and was below xx percent of the ICNIRP 1998 reference levels. Comparative testing of a bus on the Scania test track and the anechoic chamber at RISE showed that 90 percent of the values were similar, with a root mean square deviation of 0.65 between the two tests showing the measurement protocol produces consistent results between isolated and real-world test conditions. Important observations were also made on the practicability of the measurement protocol such as the requirement for careful scanning of measurement volumes, particularly during testing in a vehicle in motion. Further avenues of research highlighted by this project include evaluation of usability and ergonomics of using the measurement protocol, development of user-friendly measuring equipment for magnetic field measurements, and further testing of battery electric vehicles to gather more data on human exposure.