Chapter 231 - Study of skin burns due to contact with cold mediums at extremely low temperature

Abstract

This chapter reviews a three-dimensional multi-layer bioheat transfer model to predict the tissue damage following a freezing burn. In the model, multiple factors to respectively present the properties of the different layers of the biological tissues and solidification features due to freezing are considered. This mathematical model is numerically solved using finite–difference method. The results indicate that the production of freezing burns is dependent on both the surface area exposed to cold medium and the duration of exposure to freezing. Further, a preliminary experiment is also conducted to validate the theoretical results. The experimental results qualitatively agree with the theoretical ones. The theoretical results indicate that the extent of freezing burns is dependent on both the surface area exposed to cold medium and the duration of exposure to freezing. A preliminary experiment qualitatively agrees with the theoretical prediction. The theoretical analysis can be applied to quantitatively predict the extent of skin bums resulted by cold mediums at extremely low temperature.