The Numerical Model Of The Neonatal Brain Cooling Process, Emphasizing The Rewarming Stage

In this paper the attempt is made to simulate numerically the heat transfer in the neonatal body during the whole brain cooling process. The main aim of the analysis is to tune the developed model and make it convergent and representing the hypothermia therapy reasonably well. Because neonatologists and nurses reported that the last stage of the therapy, called rewarming, is the most difficult to perform, this stage was the subject of this paper. The heat transfer process through the human tissue is in the model governed by the Pennes bioheat equation. The simplified geometrical model of the newborn's body based on the primitive geometrical solids was built by use of Design Modeler while Ansys Fluent with its UDF (User Defined Function) capability is used to implement the whole model and to carry out simulations. Obtained results of the numerical computations are compared with the data obtained from neonatologists.