International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 78 (2014) 232239

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhmt

Boundary prediction of bio-heat conduction in a two-dimensional

multilayer tissue
Ching-yu Yang
Department of Mold and Die Engineering, National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences, Taiwan, Republic of China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The prediction and control of temperature distributions in tissue by the thermal conditions on the tissue
Received 12 May 2014 surface is an issue that is novel to the multilayer bio-heat problem. Acceptable thermal conditions on the
Received in revised form 19 June 2014 boundary can be obtained by using a known temperature eld inside the tissue. The inverse solution to
Accepted 24 June 2014
this problem was deduced from a numerical approach combined with the concept of future time. The
Available online 18 July 2014
problem with inverse bio-heat conduction is the slow heat-wave propagation speed, which makes the
traversing temperature difcult to obtain. Three cases are presented in this paper to demonstrate the fea-
Keywords:
tures and validity of the proposed method. The estimated result were compared to conrm the validity
Inverse bio-heat problem
Multilayer biological tissue
and accuracy of the proposed method.
Hyperbolic heat conduction 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction during inverse two-dimensional multilayer bio-heat conduction

Many methods for solving non-Fourier bio-heat problems con-
cerning single-layer materials have been proposed, such as thermal
shock mechanisms, evaluating skin burns, and simulating thermal
dose distribution during thermal therapy [17]. By contrast,
approaches applicable to multilayer biological materials are scarce
[4].
The mathematical representation of the bio-heat non-Fourier
law is a hyperbolic form with a nite wave propagation speed.
Because of multiple layers of multilayer structures, the behavior
of non-Fourier bio-heat wave propagation in multilayer tissue is
less predictable than in single-layer materials. Despite this, some
studies have been conducted on non-Fourier multilayer bio-heat
conduction. For instance, Liu and Cheng [4] used a Laplace trans-
form with a numerical spatial scheme to analyze the non-Fourier
multilayer tissue problem in one dimension. This study was mainly
a direct analysis of non-Fourier multilayer bio-heat conduction,
and the inverse non-Fourier multilayer boundary remains largely
unknown. In the inverse domain, the boundary condition is esti-
mated from the temperature measured at a location that is differ-
ent from the boundary location. The slow speed of heat-wave
propagation in multilayer bio-tissue makes measuring tempera-
tures difcult. To overcome this problem, this study adopts a
robust and stable method for estimating the boundary condition
E-mail address: cyyang@cc.kuas.edu.tw
[6]. In this study, a cooling strategy is also designed to alleviate
the degree of skin burn [8,9].
In this paper, a numerical method is presented for sequentially
estimating the boundary condition without requiring a sensitivity
analysis. In the proposed method, a closed-form expression is
derived from a numerical model to explicitly represent the
unknown condition. During the derivation process, a nite-ele-
ment method [10,11] was rst used to discrete the problem with
the spatial coordinate. A nite difference method combined with
the concept of future time [12] was then used to iteratively solve
the problem along the temporal domain. Subsequently, the tem-
perature response was sequentially determined step by step with
the temporal coordinate.
This paper is organized into six sections. Section 1 introduces
current developments regarding techniques for non-Fourier bio-
heat problems. In addition, current developments for non-Fourier
bio-heat problems and the features of the proposed method are
described. In Section 2, the non-Fourier bio-heat problem is stated
and a matrix representation of the problem is presented. In Sec-
tion 3, the characteristics of the inverse problems and the process
of the proposed method is described. Section 4 proposes a compu-
tational algorithm for the subsequent computations. In Section 5,
three examples are employed to demonstrate the validity and
application of the proposed method. This section also presents a
discussion of the analyzed results. Finally, the overall contribution
and possible applications of this research are presented in
Section 6.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2014.06.071
0017-9310/ 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 C.-y. Yang / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 78 (2014) 232239 233

Nomenclature

[A] conductivity matrix s relaxation time of tissue

[B], [C] transient matrix k thermal conductivity of tissue
[D] 2
B D1t C wb perfusion of blood
Dt 2
cb specic heat of blood
[E]  D1t2 B
Dt increment of temporal domain
[K] A D1t2 B D1t C k random number
Nt number of the temporal measurements r standard deviation of measurement error
[U] [K]1[D] / unknown temperature condition at th grid
[V] [K]1[E] h evaluation temperature
[W] [K]1 hmeas measured temperature
[fU] intermediate matrix hsimu simulated temperature
[fV] intermediate matrix h_ derivative of evaluation temperature h
h second derivative of evaluation temperature h
[fW] intermediate matrix
p number of spatial measurement h vector from previous state and the present known
q heat ux boundary
r number of the future time X intermediate matrix
{R} boundary vector at th temporal coordinate U vector form of estimated boundary
[] matrix
fRknown
 g vector of the known boundary at th temporal coor-
{} column vector
dinate
bc row vector
fRunknown
 g unknown boundary vector at th temporal coordinate
t temporal coordinate
T temperature Subscripts
T0 initial temperature i, j, k, l, m, n indices
buc unit row vector with a unit at -component N number of unknown boundary
{u} unit column vectors with a unit at th component N number of grids at spatial coordinate
x spatial coordinate
a,b,c intermediate variables Superscripts
l relative error of estimated solution i,l,n indices
q density of tissue i, j,m,u,v indices
c specic heat of tissue

2. Problem statement wb and cb represent the perfusion and specic heat of blood, respec-
tively; T is the temperature response; and T0 is the initial tempera-
An undetermined boundary is imposed on one side of the tissue ture distribution of the tissue. The elevation temperature, h, is
and the temperature is measured at a different location. The dened as h = T  T0. The inverse analysis involved estimating the
inverse bio-heat problem is related to nding the boundary condi- condition at the heated zone (see Fig. 1).
tion in two-dimensional multilayer tissue. The dimensions of the
problem are x = 0.01208 m and y = 0.3 m (see Fig. 1); and the
heated zone is one-third of the width. The structure of the biolog-
ical tissue is shown in Fig. 1. The structure was a composite of epi-
dermis, dermis, and subcutaneous layers [6,7], therefore it was a
multilayer tissue. Assuming that the value of metabolic heat gener-
ation is constant, without any spatial heating source, the value of
thermal conductivity is constant and the initial temperature is dis-
tributed all over the tissue medium. The properties of the tissue are
shown in Table 1. The body core temperature was Tb = 37 C. The
initial temperature Ti = 37 C was evenly distributed over the tissue
except the skin surface. The skin surface was initially 32.5 C. The
skin surface excluded the heated zone (see Fig. 1) was a convection
boundary with convection coefcient h =10000 W/(m2K). The envi-
ronment temperature Tenv is 27 C. The temperature boundary is
set to 37 C in the left and right hand side and the bottom of the
tissue (see Fig. 1). The thermal model of bio-heat transfer is shown
as follows [7]:

@2h @h
sqc 2
qc swb cb wb cb h  kr2 h 0 x; y 2 V 1
@t @t

The thermal model of the layers is expressed by Eq. (1). The three
layers exhibited different physiological and thermal properties.
s,q,c, and k represent the relaxation time, density, specic heat,
and thermal conductivity of the tissue in each layer, respectively; Fig. 1. Geometry conguration for example problem.
234 C.-y. Yang / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 78 (2014) 232239

 0  
Table 1 where fU U fV0 V fW0  W
Parameters for calculations [4].

Blood Epidermis Dermis Subcutaneous fU1  UfU0  V fV1  UfU0  fW1  UfW0 
c, J/kg  C 3770 3600 3400 3060
 i2     
fU U fUi1 V fUi
xb, kg/m3  s 0.0 1.5 1.25
k, W/m  C 0.26 0.52 0.21  i2   
L, m 80  106 0.002 0.01 fV U fVi1 VfVi 
q, kg/m3 1060 1200 1200 1000  i2   
fW U fWi1 VfWi  7

3. Method for determining boundary conditions Therefore, the temperature vector at m + n)-temporal grid is
fhmn g Ufhmn1 g Vfhmn2 g WfRmn g
In this section, the inverse solution can be represented as a
matrix equation. The corresponding properties and condition are fUn fhm1 g fVn fhm2 g fWn fRm g    fW2 
substituted into Eq. (1). Then, the temperature distribution can  fRmn2 g fW1 fRmn1 g fW0 fRmn g
then be represented as a function of the boundary condition. The X
n
concept of future time [12] is incorporated into the proposed fUn fhm1 g fVn fhm2 g fWnk fRmk g
method. k0
The proposed method uses a nite-element method with linear X
n

elements to discretize the spatial coordinate. By the conventional fUn fhm1 g fVn fhm2 g fWnk fRknown
mk g
k0
nite-element procedure with np grids at t = tj [10,11], the problem
can be converted into the following matrix form: X
n
fWnk fRunknown
mk g
Bfhj g Cfh_ j g fRj g  Afhj g 2 k0
X
n
fUn fhm1 g fVn fhm2 g fWnk fRknown
mk g
where A is the conductivity matrix of the problem with np dimensions
k0
B and C are the transient matrixes of the problem X
n
with np dimensions fWnk fRunknown
mk g 8
k0
fRj g is the boundary vector with np components
fhj g is the temperature vector with np components where n is an integer and n 0; 1; 2; . . . ; r  1
1 1 After multiplying a unit row vector buic with both sides of Eq.
Bfhj  2hj1 hj2 g Cfhj  hj1 g fRj g  Afhj g 3 (8), the temperature at i-spatial grid can be calculated as:
Dt 2 Dt
Kfhj g Dfhj1 g Efhj2 g fRj g 4      
himn ui Ufhmn1 g ui Vfhmn2 g ui WfRmn g
1 1      Xn

where K A B C ui fUn fhm1 g ui fVn fhm2 g ui fWnk fRknown

mk g
Dt 2 Dt k0
2 1
D 2 B C  Xn
Dt Dt ui fWnk fRunknown
mk g
1 k0
E  2 B
Dt      Xn
ui fUn fhm1 g ui fVn fhm2 g ui fWnk fRknown
mk g
fRj g fRknown
j g fRunknown
j g
k0
fRknown
j g is the vector of the known boundary X
N X
n
 i  nk j j
fRunknown g is the vector of the unknown boundary u fW fu g/mk 9
j
j1 k0

When t = tj, the temperature distribution {hj} can be derived P

where fRunknown
mk g Nj1 fuj g/jmk
from Eq. (4) as follows:
and N is the number of the estimated quantities.
fhj g K1 Dfhj1 g K1 Efhj2 g K1 fRj g Here buic is a unit row vector with a unit at i-component; the
value of i is the grid number of the measured grid. {uj} is the unit
Ufhj1 g Vfhj2 g WfRj g 5
column vector with a unit at jth component. Here, the value of
1 1
where [U] = [K] [D], [V] = [K] [E] and [W] = [K] 1 /jmk is denoted as the unknown boundary and j is the grid number
Similarly, the temperature distribution at t = tm, tm+1, . . ., tm+r1 of the location of the estimated boundary. The value of N is the
can be represented as follows: number of the unknown boundary conditions.
Then, the temperatures at i-spatial grid at (m + n)-temporal grid
fhm g Ufhm1 g Vfhm2 g WfRm g can be expressed as follows:
   
fU0 fhm1 g fV0 fhm2 g fW0 fRm g
X
N X
n
fhm1 g Ufhm g Vfhm1 g WfRm1 g himn aimn bimn ci;jmn;k /jmk 10
j1 k0
fU1 fhm1 g fV1 fhm2 g fW1 fRm g fW0 fRm1 g
fhm2 g Ufhm1 g Vfhm g WfRm2 g    
where aimn ui fUn fhm1 g ui fVn fhm2 g
fU2 fhm1 g fV2 fhm2 g fW2 fRm g fW1 fRm1 g fW0 fRm2 g
 Xn
.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. bimn ui fWnk fRknown
mk g
fhmr1 g Ufhmr2 g Vfhmr3 g WfRmr1 g k0
 
fUr1 fhm1 g fVr1 fhm2 g fWr1 fRm g   c i;j
ui fWnk fuj g
  mn;k
fW2 fRmr3 g fW1 fRmr2 g fW0 fRmr1 g 6
The value of n ranging from 0 to r  1 is substituted into Eq. (10),
 C.-y. Yang / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 78 (2014) 232239 235

X
N where
him aim bim ci;jm;0 /jm 8 1 9
j1 >
> /m >
>
>
> 2 >>
X
N >
< /m >
=
him1 aim1 bim1 ci;jm1;0 /jm ci;jm1;1 /jm1 U
j1 > .. >
>
> . >
>
>
> >
X
N
: N> ;
him2 aim2 bim2 ci;jm2;0 /jm ci;jm2;1 /jm1 ci;jm2;2 /jm2 /m N1
j1
8 9
......................................................... >
> h1m  a1m  b1m >
>
>
> >
>
X
N >
> h 1
 a 1
 b 1 >
>
> >
himr1 aimr1 bimr1 ci;jmr1;0 /jm ci;jmr1;1 /jm1 >
>
>
m1 m1 m1 >
>
>
>
> . >
>
j1 >
> .. >
>
>
> >
>
ci;j j i;j j > >
mr1;2 /m2    cmr1;r1 /mr1 11 >
>
>
>
>
>
>
> >
>
>
> h 1
 a 1
 b 1 >
>
Here, superscripts i and j of c represent the measured grid and >
> mr1 mr1 mr1 >
>
>
> >
>
the estimated grid, respectively; and the subscript of c denotes the >
> h 2
 a 2
 b2 >
>
>
> m m1 m >
>
future time step. >
> >
>
< 2 2
hm1  am1  bm1 2 =
The values of ci;j
mn;k
vary with the measured location and the h
estimated location. Moreover, it also varies with the number of >
> .. >
>
>
> . >
>
future time steps but not with the time step in the global temporal >
> >
>
>
> hmr1  amr1  bmr1 >
2 2 2 >
>
> >
>
coordinate. In other words, the values of ci;j
mn;k are constants in
>
> >
>
>
>  >
>
each evaluation step and they need to be calculated only once >
> >
>
>
> p p p >
>
when the location of the measured point and the estimated bound- >
> h m1  a m  bm >
>
>
> >
>
>
> h p
 a p
 b p >
>
ary are xed. On the other hand, the coefcients in Eq. (10) aimn >
> m1 m1 m1 >
>
>
> >
>
and bimn are derived from the previous states {hm2}, {hm1} and >
> .
. >
>
>
> . >
>
>
> >
>
the present known boundary fRknownmk g. Therefore, these coefcients
: p p p ;
hmr1  amr1  bmr1 pr1
need to be evaluated at each successive time step.
When t = tm, the estimated condition between t = t1 and t = tm1 2 3
has been evaluated and the strength of the boundary condition at E1;1
0 E1;2
0  E1;N
0
t = tm is to be estimated. For stabilizing the estimated result in the
6 1;1 7
6 E1
6 E1;2
1  E1;N
1
7
7
inverse algorithm, several future values of the estimation are tem- 6 . .. ...... .. 7
6 . 7
porally assumed to be constant in the subsequent procedure [8]. 6 . . ... . 7
6 1;1 7
Then, the jth unknown condition at future time is assumed to be 6E E1;2  1;N 7
Er1 7
6 r1 r1
equal, i.e., 6 2;1 7
6 E0
6 E2;2
0  E2;N
0 7
7
/jm /jm1    /jmr2 /jmr1 12 6 2;1 2;N 7
6 E1 E2;2
1  E1 7
6 7
6 . .. ...... .. 7
Here r is the number of future time steps. X6
6 .
. . ... . 7 7
Substituting Eqs. (11) and (12) into Eq. (10), we get 6 2;1 2;N 7
6 Er1
6 E2;2
r1  Er1 7 7
X
N 6 ... ...... ...... ...... 7
him a i
bim ci;j j 6 ... 7
m m;0 /m 6 ... ... ... ... 7
j1 6 p;1 7
6E Ep;2  p;N 7
E1 7
6 0 1
X
N 6 p;1 7
him1 aim1 bim1 ci;j i;j j
m1;0 cm1;1 /m
6 E2
6 Ep;1
2  Ep;1
2 7
7
j1 6 . .. ...... .. 7
6 . 7
X
N 4 . . ... . 5
him2 aim2 bim2 ci;j i;j i;j j
m2;0 cm2;1 cm2;2 /m Ep;1
r1 Ep;2
r1    Ep;N
r1 prN
j1

......................................................... where p is an integer and is denoted as the total number of mea-

X
N sured points.
himr1 aimr1 bimr1 ci;j i;j i;j
mr1;0 cmr1;1 cmr1;2 After the measured temperature hij is substituted into vector h,
j1 the components of vector U can be found using the linear least-
   ci;j j
mr1;r1 /m 13 squares error method [10], and the result is:

We dene ^ XT X1 XT h
U 17
X
N
Therefore, the unknown boundary condition fRunknown
can be g
himk aimk bimk Ei;j
k /m
j
14 m

j1
solved at successive time steps along with the temporal coordi-
nate. In other words, Eq. (17) provides a sequential algorithm for
X
k estimating the boundary condition through increasing the value
Ei;j
k ci;jmk;l 15 of m by one for each time step because the estimated condition
l0 varies with the measured temperature, the known boundary
and k 0; 1; 2; . . . ; r  1 condition fRuknown
m g, and the previous states {hm2} and {hm1}.
Therefore, Eq. (13) can be expressed as the following form Moreover, the proposed method is developed from the nite-
element approach, and it can be extended for use in other kinds
h XU 16 of numerical methods using the proposed procedure.
236 C.-y. Yang / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 78 (2014) 232239

4. Computational algorithm 70

=0 at (0.00008, 0)
The procedure for the proposed method can be summarized as
follows: First, we set the number of future time steps r, the mesh
conguration of the problem domain, the temporal size Dt, the 60 =20 at (0.00008, 0)
measured grid and the estimated grid. With matrices [B], [C] and
conductivity matrix [A] of the nite-element model known, =20 at (0.00208, 0)
matrixes [U], [V] and [W] can be calculated in advance and the
value of Ei;j
k is known before the calculation at each time step. Then,
50

Temperature ( C)
o
the estimation of boundary condition at each time step can be
expressed as follows.

Step 1. Let j = m and the temperature distribution at {hj2} and 40

{hj1}. are known.
Step 2. Calculate a1j ; a1j1 ; . . . ; a1jr1 ,a2j ; a2j1 ; . . . ; a2jr1 ; . . . . . . ; apj ;
=0 at (0.00208, 0)
apj1 ; . . . ; apjr1 and b1j ; b1j1 ; . . . ; b1jr1 ; b2j ; b2j1 ; . . . ; b2jr1 ,. . .
30
...; bpj ; bpj1 ; . . . ; bpjr1
Step 3. Collect the measurement h1j ; h1j1 ; . . . ; h1jr1 ,h2j ; h2j1 ; . . . ;
h2jr1 ,. . . . . . ; hpj ; hpj1 ; . . . ; hpjr1
j k
Step 4. Calculate U /1j ; /2j ; . . . ; /Nj according to Eq. (17) 20
0 20 40 60 80 100
Step 5. Calculate {hj} Temporal coordinate (s)
Step 6. Terminate the process if the nal time step is attached.
Otherwise, let j = m + 1 return to Step 2. Fig. 3. The direct solution of case two at (x, y) = (0.00008, 0) and (0.00208, 0) when
s = 0 and s = 20.

5. Results and discussion 4

1 10

In this section, three cases are used to demonstrate the pro- Exact
posed method. Case 1 represents heat ux with stepwise variation =0 r =1
and the direct solution was adopted to verify the validity of the =20 r =4
method. Case 2 is a sinusoidal variation and it was used to test
5000
the inverse solution. Case 3 is used to predict the boundary heat
ux when a preselected temperature eld was adopted and the
Heat flux (W/m )
2

inverse method was used to design an energy exchange on the

boundary. The simulated boundary was imposed on the heated
zone of the tissue and the temperature was measured at a different 0
location. Both Fourier and non-Fourier models are investigated in
this study.

140
-5000

120

4
-1 10
0 20 40 60 80 100
=0 at (0.00008, 0)
100
Temporal coordinate (s)
Temperature ( C)

Fig. 4. The inverse solution of case two with r = 0 when, s = 0 and s = 20.
o

80
The simulated temperature in Case 2 was calculated using Eq.
=20 at (0.00008, 0) (9) when the boundary and initial conditions were known in
60 advance. The temperature before the arrival of the thermal wave
was changed to the initial temperature. The whole measurement
process was presumed to exhibit measurement error. In other
words, random measurement errors were added to the simulated
40 =0 at (0.00208, 0)
temperature, as shown in the following equation:
=20 at (0.00208, 0) hmeas hsimu ki;j r 18
i;j i;j
20
0 20 40 60 80 100 where subscripts i and j are the grid numbers of the spatial and
Temporal coordinate (s) temporal coordinates, respectively; hsimu
i;j is the simulated tempera-
Fig. 2. The direct solution of case one at (x, y) = (0.00008, 0) and (0.00208, 0) when ture; hmeas
i;j is the measured temperature; r is the standard deviation
s = 0 and s = 20. of the measurement error; and ki,j is a random number. The value of
 C.-y. Yang / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 78 (2014) 232239 237

4 44
1 10

Exact
= 0 r =4 =0.25 43 Temperature cooled down in 5 seconds
=20 r =4 =0.25 Temperature cooled down in 10 seconds

5000 42
Heat flux (W/m )
2

41

Temperature ( C)
o
0 40

39

-5000
38

37

4
-1 10
0 20 40 60 80 100 36
0 20 40 60 80 100
Temporal coordinate (s)
Temporal coordinate (s)
Fig. 5. The inverse solution of case two with r = 0.25 when s = 0 and s = 20.
Fig. 7. The expected temperature prole to alleviate the skin injury at the interface
of epidermis and dermis layer when s = 0 and s = 20.
4
1 10

Exact
4
=0 r =4 =0.5 1.4 10

=20 r =4 =0.5
5000
1.2 10
4 =0 t =5 =0 tf =10
f
=20 t =5 =20 t =10
Heat flux (W/m )

f f
2

4
1 10
Heat flux (W/m )

0
2

8000

6000
-5000

4000

4
-1 10 2000
0 20 40 60 80 100
Temporal coordinate (s)
0
Fig. 6. The inverse solution of case two with r = 0.5 when s = 0 and s = 20. 0 20 40 60 80 100
Temporal coordinate (s)
ki,j was calculated using International Mathematical and Statistical
Fig. 8. The designed heat ux dissipation to alleviate the skin injury based on the
Library subroutine DRNNOR [13] and was selected from the range,
expected temperature prole when s = 0 and s = 20.
2.576 < ki,j < 2.576, which represents the 99% condence boundary
for the measured temperature. Case 1: The strength of the surface heating was q0 = 83.2 kW/m2
The temporal domain ranged from 0 to 100 s with 0.01-s incre- and the heating duration was 3 s.
ments used for direct analysis and 1-s increments used for inverse Case 2: The strength of the surface heating was q0 8320
2pt 
analysis. Detailed descriptions of the cases follow. sin 100 kW/m2.

Table 2
The relative average errors of case two.

Measurement error r=0 r = 0.1 r = 0.2 r = 0.25 r = 0.5

r=4 r=4 r=4 r=4
Fourier model s = 0 0.018294 (r = 1) 0.025221 0.025822 0.026862 0.036481
Non-Fourier model s = 20 0.052358 (r = 4) 0.062140 0.080347 0.090873 0.148520
238 C.-y. Yang / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 78 (2014) 232239

Case 3: The tissue was 44 C when t = 0. The temperature was 46

decreased to 37 C at the interface of the epidermis
Expected temperature when t =10
and dermis layers for a xed duration. f

The direct solution for the rst case obtained at (x,y)= (0.00008, =0
=20
0) and (0.00208, 0) m is shown in Fig. 2. The temperature response 44
simulated by the proposed method reected the same trend as that
reported by Liu et al. [4, Fig. 4]. The numerical result conrmed the
validity of the proposed method.

Temperature ( C)
0
For Case 2, the direct solution at (x,y)= (0.00008, 0) and 42
(0.00208, 0) is shown in Fig. 3. The heat transferred to the mea-
sured locations without delay when the Fourier model was applied
(i.e.,s = 0 s). When the non-Fourier model was applied, time was
required to transverse the heat wave to the measured locations 40
because of the response delay between the heat ux and tempera-
ture gradient (i.e., s = 20 s).
The inverse solution was used to identify the magnitude of the
time-varying boundary condition. The difculty obtaining the solu- 38
tion has been attributed to the slow wave propagation speed, mak-
ing real-time measurement impossible, and the measured
response rapidly decaying along the spatial coordinate [6].
36
For both s = 0 and s = 20, the estimated results were similar to
0 20 40 60 80 100
the exact boundary estimation solution when r = 0 (see Fig. 4).
The estimated results when the measurement errors were consid- Temporal coordinate (s)
ered are shown in Figs. 5 and 6 for r = 0.25 and 0.5, respectively.
Fig. 10. The temperature prole calculated from the designed heat ux when the
To investigate the deviation of the estimated results from the temperature is cooled down in ten seconds.
exact solutions, the relative average errors for the estimated solu-
tions are dened as follows:
 
Nt  
1X f  ^f  mean value of the measurement) resulted in a less accurate esti-
l   19
Nt j1  ^f  mation. The result also indicated that the non-Fourier model pro-
duced a large relative estimated error. For example, when
where f is the estimated result, ^f is the exact result, and Nt is the r = 0.25, the relative estimated errors were 0.026,862 and
number of temporal steps. A lower l value reects a more accurate 0.090,873 when the relative measurement errors were 0.014782
estimation and a higher l value reects a less accurate estimation. for s = 0 and 0.014749 for s = 20, respectively (see Table 2). This
The relative average errors of the estimated results when mea- demonstrated that it was more difcult to conduct the estimation
surement error was included in the solutions in Figs. 5 and 6 are by using the non-Fourier model than the Fourier model.
shown in Table 2. The measurement temperature errors ranged In Case 3, the proposed method was used to design a cooling
from 0.644 to 0.644, implying that the average standard devia- strategy to alleviate a skin burn injury. The temperature was
tion of the measurements was r = 0.25 at the 99% condence level. 44 C at the interface of the epidermis and dermis layers. The tem-
A larger relative measurement error (i.e., 2:576r= h, where h is the perature cooled to 37 C in tf= 5 s or 10 s (Fig. 7). The designed heat
ux decreased the heat at the interface and prevented the burn
46
injury (Fig. 8) [8,9]. The designed heat ux was included in the
solutions in Figs. 9 and 10 and the temperature response conrmed
Expected temperature when t = 5
f
the desired temperature trajectory.
=0 This section describes the features of both direct and inverse
44 =20 analyses. In a direct analysis, Case 1 demonstrated the validity of
the proposed method. Case 2 showed the temperature response
of the non-Fourier model and Fourier model. Inverse estimation
with measurement error was also examined in Case 2. The simula-
Temperature ( C)

tion results indicated that a higher relative error resulted in a

0

42
higher measured error (Table 2). In Case 3, a desired heat ux
was designed for burn injury alleviation. The numerical results
show demonstrated that the proposed method was robust and sta-
40 ble. The proposed method can effectively and accurately manage
two-dimensional multilayer bio-heat conduction problems.

38 6. Conclusion

This study describes the preliminary research on predicting the

boundary condition in two-dimensional multilayer bio-heat con-
36 duction. An inverse algorithm was developed to estimate the
0 20 40 60 80 100
time-varying boundary condition. The algorithm did not require
Temporal coordinate (s)
a preselected functional form for the unknown boundary or a sen-
Fig. 9. The temperature prole calculated from the designed heat ux when the sitivity analysis. Three cases were presented to illustrate the appli-
temperature is cooled down in ve seconds. cability of the proposed method. The numerical results
 C.-y. Yang / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 78 (2014) 232239
demonstrated that the proposed method accurately estimated and
designed boundary strength, even at slow heat-wave propagation
speeds. In conclusion, the numerical results indicated that the pro-
posed method is an accurate inverse technique for solving inverse
multilayer bio-heat problems. The proposed method is applicable
to other types of inverse bio-heat problem, such as source strength
estimation in the Fourier and non-Fourier domains.
Conict of interest
None declared.
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