Analysis of the effect of external heating in the human tissue: A finite element approach

Abstract Thermal therapy which involves either raising or lowering tissue temperature to treat malignant cells needs precise acknowledgment of thermal history inside the biological system to ensure effective treatment. For this purpose, this study presents a two-dimensional unsteady finite element model (FEM) of the bioheat transfer problem based on Pennes bio-heat equation to analyze the thermal response of tissue subject to external heating. Crank-Nikolson scheme was used for the unsteady solution. A finite element code was developed using C language to calculate results. The obtained numerical result was compared with the analytical and other numerical results available in the literature. A good agreement was found from the comparison. Temperature distribution inside the human body due to constant and sinusoidal spatial and surface heating were analyzed. Response to point heating was also investigated. Moreover, a sensitivity analysis was carried out to know the effect of various parameters, i.e. blood temperature, thermal conductivity, and blood perfusion rate on tissue temperature. The outcome of this study will be helpful for the researchers and physicians involved in the thermal treatment of human tissue.