Charging by walking

A model for electric body potential caused by walking on resistive floors has been studied. The model combines two main processes: an exponential increase of potential due to successive charging and potential oscillations caused by periodic changes of body capacitance during walking. The concept of limited exponential increase of body potential enabled us to introduce a quantity called 'saturated' body potential which seemed to be a prospective candidate for critical evaluation of microdischarge danger. Factors influencing the saturated body potential have been analysed and some of them experimentally investigated. Among these factors, it is the way of walking that considerably influences the value of saturated body potential. This fact has been illustrated in a series of six experiments simulating various types of stepping and walking