A Method for in Vivo Measurement of Thermophysical Properties of Biological Tissues

Author: Fuji Motoo//Zhang Xing//Takehiko//Ohkusu Makoto
Affiliation: Institute of Advanced Material Study, Kyushu University (Fukuoka, Japan)//Institute of Health Science, Kyushu University (Fukuoka, Japan)//Research Institute for Applied Mechanics, Kyushu University (Fukuoka, Japan)
Conference/Journal: J Intl Soc Life Info Science
Date published: 1999
Other: Volume ID: 17 , Issue ID: 1 , Pages: 129-134 , Word Count: 116


A non-contract method is proposed to measure thermal conductivity and thermal difffusivity of various kinds of materials, especially biological tissues. The method is based on the fact that the time variation of the heated surface temperature depends mainly on the thermal properties of the material when its surface is heated locally. An argon laser and an infrared thermometer are used heating and surface temperature measurements. The measured temperature variation is compared with that obtained numerically in advance, then the thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity are estimated simultaneously. When the laser power and heating radius have been estimated accurately, the present method could obtain the thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity of non-metal solids within an error of 10%.