Numerical Study on the Thermal Stress caused by Laser Radiation on Healthy and Cancerous Skin Tissue

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

• Sajjad Davoodi
• mostafa Esmaeili
• Hassan Shokrollahi

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran

10.22067/jacsm.2021.56871.0

Abstract

The heat generation during laser-induced thermotherapy can damage healthy tissue. Therefore, it is necessary to predict the temperature distribution and the possibility of tissue damage due to temperature rise. In this study, temperature changes and thermal stresses caused by laser on a healthy and cancerous tissue of human skin are modeled using a numerical method based on the finite element technique. It should be noted that the laser beams are assumed to be Gaussian and the attenuation of the laser light in the skin layers is based on Beer-Lambert's law, and the deformation in all parts of the element is expressed by equilibrium equations. The numerical results include the effects of laser intensity, radiation radius and wavelength as well as the role of blood perfusion on the temperature and von Mises stress distributions. Laser thermal damage to cancerous tissue is also investigated based on Arrhenius' theory. The present results can provide as preliminary information to physicians and provide a detailed account of events during the treatment.

Keywords

• Cancer‌ tissue
• laser-induced thermotherapy
• thermal stress
• blood perfusion
• thermal damage

Main Subjects

• Heat transfer

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