Dimensional soft tissue thermal injury analysis using transmission line matrix (TLM) method

The skin is sensitive to temperature change and the effect may not be significant while the temperature at the surface is below 44 degrees C. However, higher surface temperatures (above 44 degrees C) Will further incur time burning and carbonization so that irreversible damage may happen. An investigation of the heating intensity and the duration of the exposure to the heating source suggested that when the surface temperature is greater than 51 degrees C, the exposure time required to destroy the epidermis is so short that trans-epidermal necrosis may occur. In this paper, we present one- and two-dimensional numerical models based on transmission line matrix (TLM) method for a quantitative prediction of skin. burn injury resulting from the exposure of the skin surface to a high temperature heat source. Transient temperatures are numerically estimated by solving the Pennes' bioheat equation, and the damage function denoting the extent of burn injury is calculated using the Arrhenius assumptions for protein damage rate. The TLM model is used to analyse the effects of exposure time and geometrical dimensions of mutlilayered skin, on the transient temperature distribution and damage extension. TLM results showed good agreement with other numerical sources. suggesting that TLM modelling can be used as a tool for an effective thermal diagnostic of burn injuries. Copyright (C) 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.