Localized Thermal Treatment Research Articles

Local wall heating effects on aeroacoustic field radiated by an isolated square cylinder in a laminar flow

The aim of this work is to gain an insight on the effect of the wall heating on the aeroacoustic sound radiated by bluff bodies in laminar flows. In particular, the local thermal treatment of the wall boundary was investigated as a possible method for active controlling the emitted noise. This technique was studied performing direct numerical simulations of the aeroacoustic noise produced by an isolated square cylinder operating at a Reynolds and Mach numbers equal to 150 and 0.2, respectively. In the considered case, the Karman vortex street deriving by the flow/cylinder interaction, produces a lift and drag pulsation on the body surface, leading to a dipolar-like noise emission. In this context, different local thermal fluxes were applied to the cylinder wall in order to reduce its aerodynamic forces fluctuation and, consequently, the associated pressure disturbance that produces the radiated sound. The computations are performed using an OpenFOAM solver that adopts an explicit Runge-Kutta scheme for time integration and a second-order, energy conserving scheme for the convective part of the Eulerian flux. Moreover, the spurious numerical waves reflections at the far-field boundary are damped adopting a sponge-layer approach.

Elucidating the Innate Immunological Effects of Mild Magnetic Hyperthermia on U87 Human Glioblastoma Cells: An In Vitro Study.

Cancer immunotherapies have been approved as standard second-line or in some cases even as first-line treatment for a wide range of cancers. However, immunotherapy has not shown clinically relevant success in glioblastoma (GBM). This is principally due to the brain’s “immune-privileged” status and the peculiar tumor microenvironment (TME) of GBM characterized by a lack of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes and the establishment of immunosuppressive mechanisms. Herein, we explore a local mild thermal treatment, generated via cubic-shaped iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles (size ~17 nm) when exposed to an external alternating magnetic field (AMF), to induce immunogenic cell death (ICD) in U87 glioblastoma cells. In accordance with what has been observed with other tumor types, we found that mild magnetic hyperthermia (MHT) modulates the immunological profile of U87 glioblastoma cells by inducing stress-associated signals leading to enhanced phagocytosis and killing of U87 cells by macrophages. At the same time, we demonstrated that mild magnetic hyperthermia on U87 cells has a modulatory effect on the expression of inhibitory and activating NK cell ligands. Interestingly, this alteration in the expression of NK ligands in U87 cells upon MHT treatment increased their susceptibility to NK cell killing and enhanced NK cell functionality. The overall findings demonstrate that mild MHT stimulates ICD and sensitizes GBM cells to NK-mediated killing by inducing the upregulation of specific stress ligands, providing a novel immunotherapeutic approach for GBM treatment, with potential to synergize with existing NK cell-based therapies thus improving their therapeutic outcomes.

Thermal Transport Analysis of Injected Flow through Combined Rib and Metal Foam in Converging Channels with Application in Electronics Hotspot Removal

The development of miniaturized and more powerful electronic devices and microprocessors has resulted in high heat generation and temperature values in these components. That affects the performance, reliability and lifespan of the devices. In addition, more local hot spots are generated in the components that require even more attention to prevent stress failure and fatigue. As such, the employment of advanced electronics cooling systems is very essential to keep the temperature below the safe temperature. In this work, innovative cooling systems are developed and analyzed employing jet impingement technology, high conductive metal foam, rib structured target surfaces, confined non-uniform small-scale channel, and conductive heat spreader plate. The base of the foam-filled cooling channel is subject to a uniform high heat flux value resembling the electronics device to be cooled. For numerical modeling of thermal transport through foam filled region, the local thermal non-equilibrium model in porous media is utilized resulting in two energy equations for solid and fluid phases. For better understanding of flow and thermal characteristics of jet impingement through the combination of metal foam and rib structured surfaces in confined channels, several effective parameters are studied such as slot and circular jet impingements, the shape and orientation of the ribs, impinging jet velocity, applied heat flux and the thickness of conductive heat spreader plate for hotspot removal. The results show that the fully foam filled channel provides a more efficient cooling in comparison with partially foam filled channel. Furthermore, the results indicate the advantage of utilization of ribs at the stagnation region of the impinging jet, for local thermal treatment of hotspots. The perpendicular cuboid ribs placed at the stagnation zone of the coolant jet impingement provide 13% increase in maximum local Nusselt number while the increase in the pressure drop and required pumping power are as small as 4.2%. Doubling the velocity would result in 35.3% increase in the maximum local Nusselt number, 180% increase in the pressure drop and 460.7% increase in the required pumping power. An increase in the thickness of the conductive heat spreader plate increases the base local temperature but improves local temperature uniformity.

Cytotoxicity of temperature-responsive cationic diblock copolymers in human cancer and non-cancer cells lines

Introduction Thermoresponsive polymers have been widely investigated in modern drug delivery and gene delivery systems, due to their potential to load and release the payload by simply modifying local temperature [1]. Previous work by some of us has shown that the thermoresponsive copolymers poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) n -block-poly((3-acrylamidopropyl) trimethylammonium chloride) m (PNIPAAM n -b-PAMPTMA(+) m ) can efficiently deliver DNA and siRNA to HeLa [2] and HT1080 cells [3]. The transfection efficiency and cytotoxicity were highly dependent on the length and ratio of the two blocks (n:m) [2,3]. In anticancer therapy, such polymers may be able to deliver drugs precisely at the tumour site by local and transient thermal treatment [1]. Having this in mind, in this work, we took the first step towards expanding the scope of use of the PNIPAAM n -b-PAMPTMA(+) m copolymers by investigating their cytotoxicity in human cancer cell lines and in a normal breast cell line. Materials and methods The copolymers (n:m ratio 48:6, 48:10 and 65:20) were dissolved in varying concentrations in cell culture medium, as described before [2] and were incubated at 37 °C with each of the tested cell lines for 6 h. After that, the medium was replaced, and the cells were incubated for 48 h/37 °C. The viability of cells was measured by the MTT cytotoxicity assay. Untreated cells were used as negative control (representing 100% viability). Cell lines: HeLa (cervical cancer), HCC1806 (breast cancer) and MCF10A (non-tumorigenic breast epithelial cell line). Results In this preliminary study the cytotoxicity of the PNIPAAM n -b-PAMPTMA m (+) copolymers was shown to be dependent on the polymer concentration, n:m ratio and cell line. MCF10A cells were very tolerant to the presence of the copolymer 48:6, even at the highest concentration (Figure 1), followed by HeLa and HCC1806. Discussion and conclusions: The low toxicity shown particularly for the non-tumorigenic cell line but higher toxicity towards the cancer cell lines makes the tested copolymers highly appealing as drug carriers in anti-cancer therapy. Figure 1. Cell viability in the presence of the 48:6 (n:m) copolymer. Mean ± SD. Comparisons were made at the same cell line at the immediately precedent concentration (*p < 0.05) and for the same concentration between lines (#p < 0.05).

DVD assisted titanium metasurface for solar energy perfect absorption and potential applications for local thermal antibacterial treatment

A novel broadband solar absorber is numerically studied based on the commercial digital versatile disc (DVD). Refractory titanium (Ti) material is artificially coated onto the surface of the DVD, which then forms the plasmonic resonant metasurface. Spectral average absorption reaches 91.3% in the whole visible and near-infrared range (0.38–1.50 μm). The total solar absorption in these energy regions is also up to 92.1%. Moreover, the high spectral absorption is insensitive to the incident angle. Interestingly, the absorption is observed to be with high tolerance for the polarized light even if the grating structure is used in the platform. These features suggest that the broadband solar absorption can be maintained well under complex electromagnetic surroundings. Otherwise, the absorbed energy is mainly confined at the proximity surface area of the Ti cavity, which suggests the strong plasmonic near-field localization and paves the feasible way to carry out the local heating operation for thermal antibacterial/antivirus applications.

High accuracy direct hot bending of hollow profiles

The paper presents the potentialities of thermal assisted processing to manufacture bent hollow profiles in multi-phase High Strength Steels. A new process, named Direct Hot Rotary Draw Bending (DHRDB), was developed and validated in the case of processing 22MnB5 profiles, allowing a localized thermal treatment of the hollow profile during the bending process. Interaction between thermal and tools kinematic cycles were investigated to identify the most suitable process windows capable of granting the required accuracy and mechanical properties. The results show that DHRDB allows overcoming the room temperature process limitations granting high accuracy, nearly absent springback and enhanced mechanical properties.

Thermo-Electrical Field Analysis for the Treatment of Tumors in the Liver Using Low-Frequency Joule Heating

Hepatic tumors occur in liver tissue due to the growth of malignant cells. Low-frequency Joule heating (LFJH) is one of the cancer treatment methods that show tremendous potential to treat hepatic cancer without causing excessive side effects or patient discomfort as other cancer treatments such as chemotherapy. In this localized thermal treatment method, the tumor in liver tissue is heated to a critical temperature range using radiofrequency (RF) energy designed to damage malignant cells. An electrode is introduced over the tumor and electric current is passed through it to induce Joule heating. The volume heat generation due to the Joule heating raises local temperature in tumor cells and causes complete destruction or damage. In this study, a computational simulation model is created based on coupled solution of bio heat equation and electrical field equation and considering a composite region of malignant tumor embedded in liver tissue region. The electrical and thermal fields that can cause damage to the malignant cells without affecting the surrounding tissue are determined and optimized by changing various controlling parameters such as electrode design, frequency, and amplitude of the RF energy

Study of wear resistance of railway rails welded joint

Welding joints of rails are a weak point of a jointless railway line, which stipulates actuality of studies on increasing their operational resistance. Microstructures of welded joints made by existing at present welding technology and by a new one were compared. Existing (base) technology comprises further thermal treatment of the welded joint, while the new technology comprises welding followed by a short-time electric current impact during the rail joint cooling. To study the microstructures of welded joints, samples were cut out the welded seam zone and heat affected zone, as well as out of the base metal. The study was carried out in the depth of 5 mm from the surface, after thin section etching by 4% solution of nitric acid in alcohol. In the macro-structure of the metal of welded joint, made by the base technology, an uneven heat affected zone was detected. The zone had the following dimensions: 51 mm – in the head, from 45 mm to 62 mm – in the neck and 64 mm – in the bottom (by each of the seal side). In the longitudinal mac- ro-template of sample Б (the new welding method), the heat affected zone was even and along the whole joint had the width of 22 mm (in each of the joint side). It was shown, that the new welding method of railway rails enables to decrease the extension of zone with sorbitic and granular pearlite at various stage of coagulation. A short-time impact of electric current during rail joint cooling ensures obtaining a zone with a decreased hardness of 15 mm extension and decrease of welded seam metal hardness relatively the lower border of base metal hardness by less than 15%. Application an additional local thermal treatment by a separate induction heating during base technology results in forming zones of 30 mm extension in the area of welded joint, which wear resistance is 4.5 times lower comparing with wear resistance of the rail base metal. At the new welding method application, the extension of the abovementioned zone does not exceed 10 mm and wear resistance was decreased by less than 2 times.

PolyCSAM: Boosting Cold Spray Additive Manufacturing Into Full-Scale Production

Abstract A joint Canadian venture launches a new facility with an innovative hybrid approach to cold spray additive manufacturing. The technology platform combines multiple manufacturing steps in a single cold spray additive manufacturing (CSAM) unit, incorporating surface preparation, cold spray forming and buildup, local laser-based thermal treatment, and in-situ sequential robotic machining and semi-finishing.

Temperature Dependence of the Magnetic Properties of IrMn/CoFeB/Ru/CoFeB Exchange Biased Synthetic Antiferromagnets.

Synthetic antiferromagnets (SAF) are widely used for a plethora of applications among which data storage, computing, and in the emerging field of magnonics. In this framework, controlling the magnetic properties of SAFs via localized thermal treatments represents a promising route for building novel magnonic materials. In this paper, we study via vibration sample magnetometry the temperature dependence of the magnetic properties of sputtered exchange bias SAFs grown via magnetron sputtering varying the ferromagnetic layers and spacer thickness. Interestingly, we observe a strong, reversible modulation of the exchange field, saturation field, and coupling strength upon heating up to 250 °C. These results suggest that exchange bias SAFs represent promising systems for developing novel artificial magnetic nanomaterials via localized thermal treatment.

Thermo-poroelasticity under constant fluid flux and localized heat source

Coupled thermo-hydraulic-mechanical behavior of saturated porous media with low permeability is of crucial significance to multiple operations including thermal treatment for declogging wellbores, thermal fracturing during production of unconventional shale oil, radioactive-waste disposal, and soft tissue and tumor growth. This work presents new thermo-poroelastic solutions for an isotropic medium subjected to a constant fluid flux and a localized heat source, incorporating two novel components: (a) transient flow transfer between the source and the embedding layer, thus incorporating the temporal thermo-poroelastic changes in the stress state adjacent to the source; and (b) vertical confinement effects on the mechanical response of the target zone, governed by the stiffness of the sealing media using the Winkler model approximation. The Westerly Granite is selected to assess the thermo-poroelastic alterations induced under the imposed fluid flux and heat loads. Results reveal generation of short-term thermal-induced pore pressures subsequent to injection initiation which otherwise cannot be predicted using current solutions. The new solutions capture higher thermal induced pore pressures and a more rapid dissipation under a higher heat transition rate between the source and the target zone. A compassion between the response of the porous layer under constant fluid flux and localized heat source, versus localized heat and flow sources reveals the former loading to be the most effective for localized thermal treatment as it results in: notably higher thermal-induced pore pressures, the maximum thermal-induced pressures to occur in the source vicinity; and particularly slower dissipation of the thermal-induced pore pressures. The stress paths demonstrate slight initial dilation before compaction under the latter loading; while the former results in an initial compaction with higher deviatoric stresses proceeded by dilation once the thermal-induced pore pressures tend to dissipate. Stress paths reveal the vertical confinement to remarkably impact the response of a porous layer. Higher compaction is generated under higher vertical confinement. In case of a mechanically free source-medium interface, lower vertical confinement gives rise to higher deviatoric stresses and lower mean stresses during the initial compaction phase, in addition to causing the formation to undergo dilation much sooner compared to when higher confinement is applied. For a mechanically fixed boundary setting, higher deviatoric stresses are generated under higher vertical confinements.

Iron embedded magnetic nanodiamonds for in vivo MRI contrast enhancement

Although nanodiamonds have long being considered as a potential tool for biomedical research, the practical in vivo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) application of nanodiamonds remains relatively unexplored. In this paper, we present the first application of in vivo MRI contrast enhancement using only iron embedded magnetic nanodiamonds. An MR image enhancement was clearly demonstrated in the rendering of T2-weighted images of mice obtained using an unmodified commercial MRI scanner. The excellent contrast obtained using these nanodiamonds opens the door to the non-invasive in vivo tracking of nanodiamonds and image enhancement. In the future, one can apply these magnetic nanodiamonds together with surface modifications to facilitate drug delivery, targeted therapy, localized thermal treatment, and diagnostic imaging.

The Technique for Producing Anotechnologies with Carbon and Ferromagnetic Metal or Alloy

Nanoparticles according to the method and technology including metal-carbon particles, particularly particles of a ferromagnetic metal or alloy encapsulated in graphitic carbon are suitable for use as a detectable moiety for imaging by the method of a magnetic resonance and fluorescence, drug delivery, cell marking and for local thermal therapeutic treatment such as hyperthermia.

Development of a new technology of welding of high speed movement rails

Results of the study of welding modes influence following isothermal exposure of rail steel samples, made by admission of alternative current pulses after the welding quoted. The welding of the samples was made under laboratory conditions using the modernized machine for contact joint welding МС-2008М.Based on laboratory study data a method of contact joint welding, protected by a RF patent, was developed, enabling to obtain a welding connection of parts made of rail steel with uniform hardness distribution and small zone of thermal influence, meeting the elaborated by JSC EVRAZ ZSMK technical specifications for perspective welded joint connection of R65 rails of DT350 category. The proposed method enables to control the structure of welded rails connection without additional local thermal treatment.

Abstract 521: Dynamic measurements of circulating microRNAs reflect different biological effects of radiofrequency ablation and transarterial chemoembolisation in liver cancer patients

Abstract Introduction: The majority of primary or metastatic liver tumors are unresectable (because of tumor size, location, poor performance status or multifocality), therefore other therapeutic modalities as radiofrequency ablation (RFA) and transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) are applied. RFA is a localized thermal treatment technique designed to produce tumor destruction by heating tumor tissue, while TACE combines cytotoxic effect of particle based tumor ischemia and locoregional chemotherapy. Both methods cause characteristic changes in liver tissue (inflammation, hypoxia, elevated temperature, tissue destruction) accompanied by targeted systemic secretion of microRNA into the bloodstream. Since RFA and TACE differ in the dynamics with which they affects the tumor tissue, we aimed to investigate whether the expression level of circulating microRNAs related to hypoxia (miR-21 and miR-210), liver injury (miR-122) and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (miR-200a) could reflect such changes. Material and methods: This study consisted of 14 patients diagnosed with primary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) (median age 73; TACE) and 20 patients diagnosed with liver metastases of colorectal cancer (median age 63; 17 patients - RFA, 3 patients - TACE). RFA was performed using the rf/mw generator (AngioDynamics). For TACE drug eluting beads (Biocompatibles Ltd.) loaded with irinotecan for mCRC patients and doxorubicin for HCC patients were used. The concentrations of miRNA were determined for all patients in series of blood plasma from 4 time points (before intervention, immediately after intervention, 24 hours after intervention, 1 week after intervention) using miRNA-specific TaqMan assays and qRT-PCR method. Results: In RFA cases we observed significant increase of investigated miRNA concentrations immediately after intervention (miR-122, FC = 15, P = 0.0002; miR-200a, FC = 1.9, P = 0.015). In TACE we observed delayed increase in circulating miRNA concentrations at time point 24 hours after intervention (miR-21, FC = 10.4, P &amp;lt; 0.0001; miR-210, FC = 9.0, P = 0.03; miR-122, FC = 27, P = 0.0004; miR-200a, FC = 4.0, P = 0.0098). In both methods, the initial increase was followed by a steady decline of miRNA levels. Identified dynamic changes in circulating miRNA levels were in accordance with the nature of RFA and TACE biologic effects. In selected cases, we observed specific dynamic miRNA patterns to be linked to the course of the disease (e.g. necessity of additional intervention). Conclusions: Our preliminary data indicates potential usage of circulating miRNAs for monitoring of the systemic effects of RFA and TACE therapy and their ability to reflect efficacy of intervention procedures. This work was supported by Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic, grant nr. 15-33158A, 15-34553A, 15-31627A, 16-31314A, and 15-34678A. Citation Format: Jaroslav Juracek, Tomas Andrasina, Barbora Cechova, Petra Vesela, Jan Zavadil, Tana Machackova, Jiri Sana, Marek Vecera, Natalia Gablo, Marek Svoboda, Nahum Goldberg, Ondrej Slaby. Dynamic measurements of circulating microRNAs reflect different biological effects of radiofrequency ablation and transarterial chemoembolisation in liver cancer patients [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2018; 2018 Apr 14-18; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 521.

Characterization of Thermally Activated Metalloenediyne Cytotoxicity in Human Melanoma Cells.

Enediynes are a highly cytotoxic class of compounds. However, metallation of these compounds may modulate their activation, and thus their cytotoxicity. We previously demonstrated that cytotoxicity of two different metalloenediynes, including (Z)-N,N'-bis[1-pyridyl-2-yl-meth-(E)-ylidene]octa-4-ene-2,6-diyne-1,8-diamine] (PyED), is potentiated when the compounds are administered to HeLa cells during hyperthermia treatment at concentrations that are minimally or not cytotoxic at 37°C. In this study, we further characterized the concentration, time and temperature dependence of cytotoxicity of PyED on human U-1 melanoma cells. We also investigated the potential mechanisms by which PyED cytotoxicity is enhanced during hyperthermia treatment. Cell killing with PyED was dependent on concentration, temperature during treatment and time of exposure. Potentiation of cytotoxicity was observed when cells were treated with PyED at temperatures ≥39.5°C, and enhancement of cell killing increased with temperature and with increasing time at a given temperature. All cells treated with PyED were shown to have DNA damage, but substantially more damage was observed in cells treated with PyED during heating. DNA repair was also inhibited in cells treated with the drug during hyperthermia. Thus, potentiation of PyED cytotoxicity by hyperthermia may be due to enhancement of drug-induced DNA lesions, and/or the inhibition of repair of sublethal DNA damage. While the selective thermal activation of PyED supports the potential clinical utility of metalloenediynes as cancer thermochemotherapeutic agents, therapeutic gain could be optimized by identifying compounds that produce minimal toxicity at 37°C but which become activated and show enhancement of cytotoxicity within a tumor subjected to localized hyperthermic or thermal ablative treatment, or which might act as bifunctional agents. We thus also describe the development and initial characterization of a novel cofactor complex of PyED, platinated PyED (Pt-PyED). Pt-PyED binds to DNA-like cisplatin, and much like PyED, cytotoxicity is greatly enhanced after treatment with the drug at elevated temperatures. However, in contrast to PyED, Pt-PyED is only minimally cytotoxic at 37°C, at concentrations at which cytotoxicity is enhanced by hyperthermia. Further development of cisplatin-based enediynes may result in compounds which, when activated, will possess multiple DNA binding modalities similar to cisplatin, but produce less side effects in tissues at normothermic temperatures.

Fe Doped Magnetic Nanodiamonds Made by Ion Implantation as Contrast Agent for MRI

We report in this paper a new MRI contrast agent based on magnetic nanodiamonds fabricated by Fe ion implantation. The Fe atoms that are implanted into the nanodiamonds are not in direct contact with the outside world, enabling this new contrast agent to be free from cell toxicity. The image enhancement was shown clearly through T2 weighted images. The concentration dependence of the T2 relaxation time gives a relaxivity value that is about seven times that of the regular non-magnetic nanodiamonds. Cell viability study has also been performed. It was shown that they were nearly free from cytotoxicity independent of the particle concentration used. The imaging capability demonstrated here adds a new dimension to the medical application of nanodiamonds. In the future one will be able to combine this capability of magnetic nanodiamonds with other functions through surface modifications to perform drug delivery, targeted therapy, localized thermal treatment and diagnostic imaging at the same time.

Enhanced Self-Biased Magnetoelectric Coupling in Laser-Annealed Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 Thick Film Deposited on Ni Foil.

Enhanced and self-biased magnetoelectric (ME) coupling is demonstrated in a laminate heterostructure comprising 4 μm-thick Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 (PZT) film deposited on 50 μm-thick flexible nickel (Ni) foil. A unique fabrication approach, combining room temperature deposition of PZT film by granule spray in vacuum (GSV) process and localized thermal treatment of the film by laser radiation, is utilized. This approach addresses the challenges in integrating ceramic films on metal substrates, which is often limited by the interfacial chemical reactions occurring at high processing temperatures. Laser-induced crystallinity improvement in the PZT thick film led to enhanced dielectric, ferroelectric, and magnetoelectric properties of the PZT/Ni composite. A high self-biased ME response on the order of 3.15 V/cm·Oe was obtained from the laser-annealed PZT/Ni film heterostructure. This value corresponds to a ∼2000% increment from the ME response (0.16 V/cm·Oe) measured from the as-deposited PZT/Ni sample. This result is also one of the highest reported values among similar ME composite systems. The tunability of self-biased ME coupling in PZT/Ni composite has been found to be related to the demagnetization field in Ni, strain mismatch between PZT and Ni, and flexural moment of the laminate structure. The phase-field model provides quantitative insight into these factors and illustrates their contributions toward the observed self-biased ME response. The results present a viable pathway toward designing and integrating ME components for a new generation of miniaturized tunable electronic devices.

A Performance Study of Clinched Joints with Local Thermal Treatment

In order to investigate the influence of local thermal treatment to microstructure and static mechanical behavior on clinched joints of cold rolling steel (SPCC) . The clinched joint performed local thermal treatment based on the test platform, and successively adopting metallographic, micro-hardness and static mechanics behavior test. The result show that the microstructure of SPCC clinching joints found a large amount of lath martensite after quenching treatment, and in comparison to which without local thermal treatment, its static strength is enhanced by 45.39% and its hardness increased by 77.78% .

Modeling of laser annealing

Processes inducing micro- and nano-structural modifications of materials play a crucial role in the advanced technology. In particular, laser irradiation attracts a great interest as a tool for the localized thermal treatment (laser thermal annealing) when the global heating of the sample could be detrimental. With the expansion of the application fields, a research effort is required to understand the kinetics in systems subjected to extreme transient excitations induced by the interaction with the laser light. Modeling and simulations cover a relevant part of this research effort. In this paper we review the current status of the laser annealing modeling. The theoretical analysis will be restricted to the heating stage of the irradiation, i.e. the ultrafast energy transfer from the electronic states to the lattice vibrations will not be considered. Therefore, the timescale of the process must be larger than ~1 ns. Models, numerical methods and applications to the experiments will be presented to deal with different questions. Among them: the simulation of the thermal field when the heat absorption depends consistently on the temperature, the prediction of a phase change kinetics in a melting process including the redistribution of alloyed systems, the damage evolution in the transient non-uniform thermal field promoted by the irradiation induced kinetics, the related dopant activation kinetics. Numerical techniques include: continuum, kinetic Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics approaches.