Effect of blood perfusion on thermal therapy in multilayer skin by semigroups approach

Abstract

A semi-analytical solution is proposed for the bioheat equation, which includes the epidermis, dermis, and hypodermis layers in the presence of a surface pulsed heat source. A switching time surface heating/cooling source, which has therapeutic applications in human tissue burning, is used. The interface temperature is calculated by matching the temperature and heat flux between two adjacent layers. A high-performance computing algorithm is designed and implemented by combining semigroups theory, Laplace transform, and convolution operators in each layer. It is proved that proposed solution is consistent, convergent and stable. The reliability, performance and efficiency of semi-analytical solutions are compared using the bioheat transfer module of COMSOL software based on standard finite element methods. Numerical results for three different medical examples are given. Influences of blood pressure on temperature along the layered skin for different switching and final times are discussed.

Keywords

• abstract differential equations
• blood perfusion
• semi-analytic solution
• composite skin tissue
• pulsed heat source