Thermal lagging in living biological tissue based on nonequilibrium heat transfer between tissue, arterial and venous bloods

Arterial, venous blood and solid tissue are the three energy carriers that contribute to heat transfer in the living biological tissues. A generalized dual-phase lag mode for living biological tissues based on nonequilibrium heat transfer between tissue, arterial and venous bloods is presented in this paper. The phase lag times for heat flux and temperature gradient only depend on properties of artery, vein and tissue, blood perfusion rate and convective heat transfer rate and are estimated using the available properties from the literature. It is found that the phase lag times for heat flux and temperature gradient are the identical for the case that the tissue and blood have the same properties. However, the phase lag times are different for the case that the properties of tissue and bloods are different. The phase lag times for brain and muscles are also discussed. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.