Analytical solutions of thermomechanical responses in skin tissue for hyperthermia treatment

Theoretical investigation of heat transport and temperature responses within biological tissues is of significant importance for medical hyperthermia treatment of cancer. This paper develops a biothermomechanical model of skin for hyperthermia treatment based on the non-Fourier bioheat transfer. The skin is considered as a three-layer tissue including epidermis, dermis and hypodermis, and the properties of each layer is assumed to be homogeneous and linear thermoelasticity. Analytical solutions of temperature profile and associated stress distribution in skin tissue are derived accounting for the blood perfusion, sweating, metabolic heat generation, specific boundary condition at skin surface and heating strategy inside biological body. Numerical results show that both of blood perfusion and sweating have great influence on temperature, thermal damage and stress, and the maximum stress induced by external heating during hyperthermia treatment always exceeds pain threshold and contributes to thermal pain sensation. Comparing with the convective cooling boundary at skin surface, the temperature field inside target domain is more uniform and the peak stress is reduced significantly when the prescribed temperature boundary is used. This paper may be helpful to improve the fundamental understanding of skin biothermomechanics and in designing of various biomechanics and biomedical related devices for hyperthermia treatment.