A numerical study on the thermal response in multi-layer of skin tissue subjected to heating and cooling procedures

This article deals with studies for the behavior of the temperature distribution in multi-layer skin during thermal injuries and its first aid treatment under generalized boundary condition. The finite difference scheme is used to estimate the temperature profile over time and distance. The skin is damaged by heating via generalized boundary condition, after that first aid treatment is applied by cooling phenomenon via the different cold temperature of liquids, the stability of numerical scheme has been discussed, and are also validated the numerical code accuracy by comparison the obtained results with the previous reference results. In the first aid treatment by cooling, the temperature at DS interface is increased constantly over time for a few seconds, then after that, the temperature goes down. The temperature rises along with distance as long as the heat effect is present in the skin, when the heat effect has vanished, the temperature in the skin starts to decrease. During cooling, the heat effect is decreasing faster for the second kind boundary condition in comparison to the first and third kind boundary conditions. It is observed that with a higher blood perfusion rate, skin transfers more heat into the blood due to a convection process, and for this reason, a large amount of heat can be carried away from the skin. The skin burns with 100 degrees C for 15 s and then we applied first aid treatment by cooling with 0 degrees C water. Then, it was observed from the mathematical results that 41 s of time is sufficient for cooling to save the rest of the living part of the subcutaneous tissue. The effect of blood perfusion rate, heating and cooling procedures, and generalized boundary conditions are discussed in detail and the results are presented graphically for the analysis of the behavior of the temperature response inmulti-layer skin.