Heat Transfer Characteristics of a Pharyngeal Cooling Cuff for the Treatment of Brain Hypothermia

Abstract

In the present study, the characteristics of both flow and heat transfer in a pharyngeal cooling cuff for the treatment of brain hypothermia were investigated experimentally and numerically. The pharyngeal cooling cuff, which is a balloon-like structure placed in the pharynx, was developed for medical purposes. As a method for controlling the brain temperature, cooling water, which is physiological saline at 5°C, is injected into the cuff in order to cool the common carotid artery, which is adjacent to the pharynx. In this study, the heat transfer characteristics between the cuff wall and phantom body, which was considered to be equivalent to the human body, were experimentally determined, and the flow behaviour in the cuff was observed in detail. Furthermore, a three-dimensional numerical simulation was carried out to investigate both the flow velocity and temperature distribution in the cuff.

Keywords

• pharyngeal cooling
• brain hypothermia
• medical engineering
• numerical simulation
• heat transfer