Body Safety and Permitted Potential Difference Allowable Body Current Limit

Body Safety and Permitted Potential Difference
Allowable Body Current Limit
• An electric shock accident is usually determined by the

frequency, magnitude and duration of the current
passing through the vital part of a human (this generally
refers to the heart). When a current passes through the
heart it causes ventricular fibrillation.
• Generally, the minimum current a human can feel is
about 1 mA, and the stimulation of a human body
caused by a current of 9–25 mA is rather painful. It may
make muscles lose control and it may be difficult or
impossible to unclamp a charged object held in the
hand.
• When the current becomes greater, heart
fibrillation occurs and causes death. Therefore,
the critical value of an electric shock current
causing ventricular fibrillation is the main
issue to be considered in the safety design of a
grounding device. For an AC current with a
frequency of 50 Hz, it can be classified into
three categories according to human responses:
• Sensory current: this is the minimum current
a human can feel. For a male adult it is 1.1
mA, and for a female adult it is 0.7 mA.
• Extrication current: this is the maximum
current that can be extricated by human after
electroshock. It is also related to gender, for a
male adult it is 16 mA and for a female adult it
is 10.5 mA.
• Fatal current: this is the minimum current that
threatens life in the shortest time, by causing
ventricular fibrillation.
• The value of the current plays a vital role in
electroshock on the human body. However, when
current passing through the body, the duration of the
current must also be considered. According to
analysis, if the duration is very short, the current that
a human can tolerate and which does not cause
ventricular fibrillation is:
where the unit of is A; and K is an energy

coefficient related to the weight of the human body.
• The energy coefficients of 50 and 70 kg humans
are K50 = 0.0135 and K70 =0.0247 , respectively.
Therefore, we can get the allowable body current
IK50 for a 50 kg human :
• According to the calculation result from Equation

above, the permitted current corresponding to 1 s
duration is 116 mA, while that corresponding to
0.1 s is 367 mA and that corresponding to 0.05 s
is 519 mA.
• The allowable body current IK70 for a 70 kg
human is
Allowable Body Voltage
• Multiplying the allowable body current IK by
the body resistance RB, we can obtain the
allowable body voltage USV:
• In a solidly grounded system, a single-phase or

two-phase ground fault cannot exist for a long
time, so substituting Equation current into
voltage Equation, the short-time allowable
body voltage for a 50 kg human is:
• Also the allowable body voltage for a 70 kg
human can be obtained:
• If we assume the body resistance RB =1000 V

and t = 1 s, the allowable body voltage in 1 s
for 50 and 70 kg humans are 116 and 157 V,
respectively.
Allowable Potential Difference
• The allowable potential difference of a human

body involves the touch voltage, step voltage .
The step voltage is the difference in surface
potential experienced by a person bridging a
distance of 1 m with his two feet without
contacting any other grounded object, whereas
the touch voltage is the potential difference
between the ground potential rise (GPR) and the
surface potential at the point where a person is
standing, while at the same time his hand is in
contact with a grounded object.
• After obtaining the allowable body current by
Equations above, when the appropriate
parameters of the human body are
determined, we can calculate the allowable
potential difference generated between the
contact points.
• the external current may have two parallel paths:
one is the direct path through the earth, the
other is through the external parallel circuit.
• Because the fault current is as high as several
hundred to several thousand amperes, while the
allowable body current must be limited to a milli
ampere level, the influence of the body on the
applied voltage can be neglected.
• We can assume that all the potential differences
before the electroshock are not changed.
• When one walks on the ground, the touch
resistance RF between the two feet and the
ground surface and the body resistance RB are
connected in series, and the permissible step
voltage US between the two feet is:
• where Vs is the potential difference between

two points where no person stands.
• When a person stands on the ground and
contacts any grounded metal conductor, the
touch resistances between the two feet and
the ground are in parallel, and the actual
voltage (i.e., the permissible touch voltage UT)
between one hand and one foot is:
• where VT is the potential difference between

two points where no person stands.
• When the feet are in contact with the ground, the
touch resistance RF between one foot and the
ground surface has a strong influence on the
body current. Usually, one foot is regarded as a
round plate with radius b (in cm) and then, in
uniform soil, RF can be calculated by:
• If the resistivity of the surface soil is assumed as

200 Ωm, the body resistance as 1000 Ω, Usually,
one foot is regarded as a round plate with radius
b (in cm) , IF b=8
the step voltage US and the touch voltage UT
calculated by Equations above are:
if RF = 3

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Body Safety and Permitted Potential Difference

Allowable Body Current Limit

• An electric shock accident is usually determined by the

where the unit of is A; and K is an energy

• According to the calculation result from Equation

• In a solidly grounded system, a single-phase or

• If we assume the body resistance RB =1000 V

• The allowable potential difference of a human

• where Vs is the potential difference between

• where VT is the potential difference between

• If the resistivity of the surface soil is assumed as

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