Analytical and Experimental Dosimetry of a Cell Culture in T-25 Flask Housed in a Thermally Controlled Waveguide

This paper describes the dosimetry of a 2.45-GHz thermally controlled waveguide exposure system containing a T-25 cell culture flask used for gene expression studies. The bottom surface of the flask is maintained at 37 degC while the remaining surfaces of the flask are at a lower temperature determined by air convection currents. Thermal gradients are set up in the cell culture medium that creates convection currents that affect cell position and exposure. The finite-element commercial software high-frequency structure simulator (HFSS) by Ansoft Corporation is used to analyze the three-dimensional distribution of electric field. The data from HFSS are exported to the finite element computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software FLUENT. The results from HFSS and CFD software agree with experimental data