Coaxial circular sector elements to study two-dimensional heat distribution problem in dermal regions of human limbs

A finite element model using two-dimensional coaxial circular sector elements has been developed to study radial and angular heat distribution problem in dermal regions of human limbs. The dermal region is made up of three layers, namely epidermis, dermis, and subcutaneous tissues. The muscles, bones, major blood vessels and fats form the inner core of the human limb. The model incorporates significant variations of physical and physiological parameters like blood mass flow rate, rate of metabolic heat generation, and thermal conductivity in each layer. The core temperature of the limb is at variable temperature along angular direction. The outer surface is exposed to the environment, and heat loss at the outer boundary takes place due to conduction, convection, radiation, and evaporation. Appropriate boundary conditions have been framed in view of the physical conditions. A computer program has been developed for the entire problem and simulated on an ICIM-6040 machine to compute numerical results. The model developed here makes the use of a finite element method easier in this situation and reduces the amount of computation in comparison to triangular elements in a finite element method.