A numerical approach to non-Fourier heat transfer in liver tumor during laser irradiation

Thermal therapy is a type of cancer treatment that uses heat to kill cancer cells, but it also may harm healthy tissue. Numerical simulations can help to accurately analyze the thermal damage of the tissue during heat exposure. The target of this study is to investigate the effect of time lags on the thermal response of the biological tissue during laser irradiation to the tumoral tissue. The classical Fourier, single phase lag (SPL) and dual phase lag (DPL) models of bio-heat transfer are implemented and compared. The numerical solution based on the finite volume method (FVM) is applied to solve the bio-heat transfer equations. Beer-Lambert’s law is applied to determine the heat source distribution caused by the laser irradiation. The thermal damage caused by the laser exposure for the three models is discussed. Results show that the DPL model predicts a significantly different thermal damage from the classical Fourier and the SPL models. It is observed that the DPL model predicts the maximum temperature 4.1℃ and 5.7℃ less than the Fourier and the SPL models, respectively. The deviation between the maximum temperatures obtained by the three models can be attributed to the finite speed of thermal wave propagation in the non-Fourier models.