Heat transport properties within living biological tissues with temperature-dependent thermal properties

Abstract

Understanding of the heat transport within living biological tissues is crucial to effective heat treatments. The heat transport properties of living biological tissues with temperature-dependent properties are explored in this paper. Taking into account of variable physical properties, the governing equation of temperature is first derived in the context of the dual-phase-lags model (DPL). An effective method, according to the Laplace transform and a linearization technique, is then employed to solve this nonlinear governing equation. The temperature distribution of a biological tissue exposed to a pulsed heat flux on its exterior boundary, which frequently happens in various heat treatments, is predicted and analyzed. The results state that a lower temperature can be predicted when temperature dependence is considered in the heating process. The contributions of key thermal parameters are different and dependent on the ratio of phase lag and the amplitude of the exterior pulsed heat flux.