Temperature variation in skin and subcutaneous layers under different environmental conditions. A two-dimensional study (Q1069460)

Attempt has been made to study temperature variation in skin and subcutaneous tissues of human body for various values of environmental temperatures, wind velocity and rate of sweat evaporation. The mathematical model incorporates the effect of blood mass flow and metabolic heat generation. The outer surface of the skin is assumed to be exposed to the environment and the heat loss from the skin caused by convection, radiation and sweat evaporation. The rates of blood mass flow, metabolic heat generation and thermal conductivity have been assigned different values in each layer of the region. The formulation for two-dimensional steady state case is presented. Variational finite element analysis has been used to obtain nodal temperatures for different values of skin thickness. It has been observed that the environmental changes effect mainly outer layers of the skin and inner layers are influenced by body core temperature.