Numerical simulation of bioheat transfer: a comparative study on hyperbolic and parabolic heat conduction

Abstract

Cancer is one of the most death-causing diseases across the world. Radiotherapy is an important modality with which it is treated. In the present study, temperature distributions due to the application of radiation on skin are estimated using parabolic and hyperbolic models of heat transfer and are compared as to which one better estimates the practical temperature distribution. From the temperature distributions obtained, it can be inferred that parabolic and hyperbolic models produce similar results for smaller phase lag times, while they predict significantly different results when the lag times are large, suggesting that hyperbolic models are suitable to be used for biological systems with very complex internal structure. Thermal damage is also calculated for three different models of heat transfer. It is observed that thermal wave model predicts higher damage, followed by dual phase lag model and Pennes model. Time required for tumor necrosis is more for higher phase lag values, suggesting longer radiation exposure durations for treating complex biological systems. When phase lag times for heat flux and temperature gradient are equal, both dual phase lag model and Pennes model have shown similar results. Effect of Gaussian distribution of applied heat flux on time required for tumor necrosis is also studied. 2019, The Brazilian Society of Mechanical Sciences and Engineering.