Eventos Anais de eventos
COBEM 2021
26th International Congress of Mechanical Engineering
A simplified mathematical model to predict the human breast thermal response
Submission Author:
Carlos Dalmaso Neto , PR
Co-Authors:
Carlos Dalmaso Neto, Yasmin Pereira Buabssi, JOSÉ VIRIATO COELHO VARGAS, Wellington Balmant, André Bellin Mariano
Presenter: Carlos Dalmaso Neto
doi://10.26678/ABCM.COBEM2021.COB2021-1070
Abstract
This study produced a simplified tridimensional (3-D) mathematical model to predict the human breast thermal response directly from physical laws and making use of mass, heat, and fluid flow empirical and theoretical correlations. The breast mathematical models described in the literature do not consider blood flow which was included in the proposed model, aiming at an accurate representation of human breast tissues. For that, the human breast was divided in Volume Elements (VE). Each VE accounted for blood perfusion and was assumed to contain a homogeneous mass of tissue with uniform properties, interacting energetically with neighboring elements, thorax, and ambient. Therefore, the model produced a system of ordinary differential equations to calculate the breast internal and surface temperature distributions as functions of time, space (from the imposed VE mesh), and known initial and boundary conditions. The actual breast external shape was taken from the subject photograph and converted into a Stereo Lithography (STL) file to produce the computational domain boundaries and mesh, and the breast internal structure was assumed to be known (e.g., from computerized tomography) which includes possible nodules and lumps. The model equations were integrated in time until steady state. The obtained breast surface temperature was compared to the actual breast infrared image temperature distribution with good qualitative agreement. After experimental validation, the model is expected to become a useful tool to study the thermal behavior of the human breast with cancer and possibly accurate early-stage cancer diagnosis and tumor depth prediction.
Keywords
temperature field, early-stage cancer diagnosis tool, model adjustment, model experimental validation, Volume Element Method (VEM).
