Analysis of the temperature influence on thermophysical properties in the three-dimensional numerical modeling of heat transfer in human biological tissue in the presence of a cancerous tumor

The proposed work consists of the analysis of the temperature influence on thermophysical properties in the three-dimensional computational numerical simulation of heat transfer in human biological tissue in the presence of a tumor. The tissue consists of layers of muscle, fat, and skin. The tumor was considered in the muscle layer. The Pennes model was used to describe the heat diffusion in the tissues. Two approaches were analyzed, one with constant thermophysical properties and the other with temperature dependent properties. In addition, two distinct cases were analyzed, one in which the tumor is already developed and another where it is still in the development stage. The temperature profile showed small differences between the approaches; however, the difference of the temperature gradient is noteworthy. The model with constant properties tends to overestimate the temperatures and to underestimate the temperature gradients. In general, the lower the temperature levels in the tissues, the greater the differences between the approaches.