Numerical Analysis of Temperature Distribution in a Three-Dimensional Image-Based Hand Model

In the present study, a simulation has been developed to investigate the blood and temperature distribution in the human hand. The simulation consists of image-based mesh generation, blood flow modeling in large vessels, and finite element analysis of heat transfer in tissues based on the porous media theory. In order to reconstruct a real geometric mesh model of the human hand, sequential MR images of a volunteer’s hand was taken firstly. Furthermore, a MATLAB program was developed to detect the edge information of the target by applying several image preprocessing operators. Finally, a FORTRAN program based on the transfinite interpolation method was developed to generate mesh from the preprocessed images automatically, and the positions of simplified bones and vessels were set according to the anatomic structure. The blood flow in large vessels adopted in this study was provided from the one-dimensional simulation of blood circulation in the upper limb, which was completed by He [1]. On the other hand, blood flow perfused in solid tissues through the micro vessels was expressed by Darcy model. The heat transfer in tissues was described by the energy equation for porous media with assuming that a local equilibrium was achieved between the blood and tissue phase. The primary results for the distribution of the blood flow perfused in tissues and temperature were obtained in this study, and they were similar to the real state of the human hand. The improvement of this simulation will be the next work.