CHAPTER

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Introduction

1.1 Preamble

Bio-heat transfer is the study of heat transfer in biological systems. It is studies how heat
moves within the body or external to the body. It is vital to study the various intricacies of
the mechanism of this multi-disciplinary subject in order to tackle the various problems
associated with the heat transfer during thermal therapies like chemo-therapy, radiotherapy
etc. One of the most rapidly developing applications of heat transfer deals with the use of
hyperthermia in cancer therapy. Thus the understanding of these heat transfer processes,
particularly the modelling of tissue heat transfer and evaluating the temperature
distribution is essential to both basic knowledge and the improvement of clinical practice.
Bio heat transfer is study of the heat transfer and temperature estimation in living tissue.
Heat transfer in skin tissues are complex operations that contains heat conduction in the
tissues and vascular system, convection between tissues and blood cause to blood flow,
perfusion into canicular tissues, metabolic heat, sweating , etc.

The Pennes’ bioheat equation (PBHTE) has been a standard model for predicting
temperature distributions in living tissues for more than a half century. The equation was
established by conducting a sequence of experiments measuring temperatures of tissue
and arterial blood in the resting human forearm. The equation includes a special term that
describes the heat exchange between blood flow and solid tissues. The blood temperature
is assumed to be constant arterial blood temperature.

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In 1948, Pennes performed a series of experiments that measured temperatures on human
forearms of volunteers and derived a thermal energy conservation equation: the well-
known bioheat transfer equation (BHTE) or the traditional BHTE. Tissue matrix thermal
equations can be explained most succinctly by considering the PBHTE as the most general
formulation. It is written as:

∇⋅k∇T+qp+qm−Wcb(T−Ta)=ρcp(∂T/∂t) (1.1)

where T(°C) is the local tissue temperature, Ta(°C) is the arterial temperature, cb(J/kg/°C) is

the blood specific heat, cp(J/kg/°C) is the tissue specific heat, W(kg/m3/s) is the local tissue-
blood perfusion rate, k(w/m/°C) is the tissue thermal conductivity, ρ(kg/m3) is the tissue
density, qp(w/m3) is the energy deposition rate, and qm(w/m3) is the metabolism, which is
usually very small compared to the external power deposition term qp. The
term Wcb(T − Ta), which accounts for the effects of blood perfusion, can be the dominant
form of energy removal when considering heating processes. It assumes that the blood
enters the control volume at some arterial temperature Ta, and then comes to equilibrium at
the tissue temperature. Thus, as the blood leaves the control volume it carries away the
energy, and hence acts as an energy sink in hyperthermia treatment.Because Pennes’
equation is an approximation equation and does not have a physically consistent theoretical
basis, it is surprising that this simple mathematical formulation predicted temperature
fields well in many applications. The reasons why PBHTE has been widely used in the
hyperthermia modelling field are twofold: (1) its mathematical simplicity; and (2) its
ability to predict the temperature field reasonably well in application.

Nevertheless, the equation does have some limitations. It does not, nor was it ever intended
to, handle several physical effects. The most significant problem is that it does not consider
the effect of the directionality of blood flow, and hence does not describe any convective
heat transfer mechanism. In Fig 1.1 show schematic of bioheat transfer model of human
body

FIGURE 1.1 Bioheat transfer model

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1.2 Thermal Therapies

The thermal therapies are based on the heat transfer in biological tissues. The need of
therapeutic application on a human tissue is to treat an infected tissue or tumour. Because
of the complex geometry of a human or any other biological tissue the heat transfer
analysis through them becomes very difficult. Moreover the blood flow and the metabolic
heat generation in the tissue makes the analysis even more complex. During thermal
therapies, the incidence or application of the heat onto the infected cells effects the
neighbouring healthy cells and tissues. As a result of this, there may be severe cases of ill
treatments where the healthy tissues burn out. The temperature level which marks the
threshold of comfort in the human body is an important matter of consideration. Heat
transfer process in biological tissues in order to maintain an almost constant temperature is
a matter of utmost importance. Therefore, it is very much a crucial work to provide
therapist with useful data regarding the thermal analysis of biological tissues. The data may
be in the form of a temperature distribution or the trend of variation of temperature in the
tissues that are being thermally treated. This data is rather vital keeping in mind the affect
of the heat on the adjoining tissues of the therapeutically treated tissues. The complex
structure of the skin tissues and the variable thermal properties throughout the different
parts of the body makes the analysis even more complex. Thus, it is better to have a
generalized computer program for interpolating the set of the functions so that there is the
independence of just changing the values of the thermal properties of the tissues to have
the required temperature distribution, not to mention the ease of the solution of the
otherwise humanly impossible task. Our bodies depend on an exquisitely sensitive and
refined temperature control system to maintain a state of health and homeostasis. The
exceptionally broad range of physical activities that humans engage in and the diverse
array of environmental conditions we face require remarkable strategies and mechanisms
for regulating internal and external heat transfer processes. On the occasions for which the
body suffers trauma, therapeutic temperature modulation is often the approach of choice
for reversing injury and inflammation and launching a cascade of healing. The focus of
human thermoregulation is maintenance of the body core temperature within a tight range
of values, even as internal rates of energy generation may vary over an order of magnitude,
environmental convection, and radiation heat loads may undergo large changes in the
absence of any significant personal control, surface insulation may be added or removed,
all occurring while the body's internal thermostat follows a diurnal circadian cycle that

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may be altered by illness and anesthetic agents. An advanced level of understanding of the
complex physiological function and control of the human body may be combined with skill
in heat transfer analysis and design to develop life-saving and injury-healing medical
devices.

1.3 Motivation of the Present Work

The thermal treatment method has been widely used in modern treatment method such as
laser surgery, infrared irradiation, laser tissue soldering, hyperthermia and other therapy
methods. The motivation of the research is derived from the requirement of a quick and
effective temperature distribution along the depth of the human tissue during therapeutic
applications. The extreme levels of temperature in the freezing and burning ranges are
useful in thermal therapies for selective killing or removal of target tissues. It is desirable
to obtain an easy way to solve the most widely used Bio-Heat Transfer equation known as
Pennes equation [1] and also use it with various modifications for imitating the actual
practical problem scenario. A numerical approach is used to solve the equations to evaluate
an accurate temperature distribution, which will be helpful for therapists during their
thermal therapies to avoid any kind of unwanted heating.

1.4 Objectives of the Present Work

The research presented in this dissertation aims at evaluating the temperature at various
points along the depth of the human skin tissue by solving a modified Pennes equation.
The objectives can be enumerated as below:

i. To develop a governing partial differential equation to analyze unsteady heat

transfer in human skin tissue and to incorporate necessary boundary conditions for
hyperthermia treatment.
ii. To set up a generalised computer program to have a quick solution to the problems
with various input property data.
iii. Discretization of 1D and 2D heat transfer equation using Finite Volume Method.

Taking 1-D generalized Pennes equation as the governing equation, a set of discretized
equation was formed by employing Finite Volume method. This set of equations was
solved by using various iterative methods by using a generalized computer program on

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MATLAB. The various parametric conditions under which the solutions has been obtained
is discussed in the next sections. On obtaining the solution, graphs are plotted in order to
compare the various distributions obtained for each of the parametric conditions.

1.5 Organization of the Dissertation

This dissertation has been presented in six chapters. The chapters next to this Introduction
chapter has been organised in the following manner:

Chapter 2 presents the extensive literature survey carried out in the field of bio heat
transfer. A literature review or narrative review is a type of review article. A literature
review is a scholarly paper, which includes the current knowledge including
substantive findings, as well as theoretical and methodological contributions to a
particular topic. Both analytical and numerical analyses are involved. It involves in
vivo as well as in vitro experiments too. Various works on bio heat transfer, be it body
heat balance, heat transfer in muscles and tissues, skin burn, hyperthermia, tumours etc.
carried out by various researchers and engineers have been reported in this chapter.

Chapter 3 presents the mathematical modelling of the skin so as to apply numerical

analysis. A mathematical model is a description of a system using mathematical
concepts and language. The model formulation process clarifies assumptions, variables,
and parameters. The behaviour of precise mathematical models can be analysed using
mathematical methods and computer simulations. Modelling is an experimental tool for
testing theories and assessing quantitative conjectures. Considering various parameters
and boundary conditions, the various equations were formulated.

Chapter 4 briefly discusses the solution procedure of the various parametric forms of
the governing equation.

In Chapter 5 the various graphs have been plotted along with the inferences obtained
from them has been discussed. Discussion is the detailed treatment of a topic in
writing. A comparison between analytical and numerical approach for temperature
distribution has been done for validation.

Chapter 6 contains the conclusions and various inferences drawn from the research. It
is the judgement and decision reached by various reasoning. The scope of future works
in the same field has also been discussed briefly.