Finite-Element Analysis of Temperature Increase in Vascularized Biological Tissues Exposed to RF Sources

A new model of numerical dosimetry is proposed for RF exposure. First, the specific absorption rate (SAR) is computed. Then, the heat transfer governed by the bio-heat equation with convection term is numerically solved by a finite-element method (FEM) procedure considering the discrete vascular model of the perfused tissue. By some manipulations of the FEM equations and by generating an adequate FEM mesh, it is possible to solve the thermal convection in the blood vessels considering a one-dimensional domain embedded in the fully three-dimensional domain where only the thermal diffusion is analyzed.