INFLUENCE OF THE MASS TRANSFER OF WATER IN CARTILAGINOUS TISSUE 
ON THE TEMPERATURE FIELD INDUCED BY LASER RADIATION

E. N. Sobol',a M. S. Kitai,a A. V. Zakharchenko,b 
Ya. M. Zhileikin,c and A. B. Kukarkinc

UDC 576.7:536.24

A study is made of the influence of the mass transfer 
of water on the temperature field occurring in cartilaginous tissue 
under the action of laser pulses. Two different mechanism of mass 
transfer of water in cartilaginous tissue (molecular-diffusion mechanism 
and laminar flow) have been considered in solving heat- and mass-transfer 
equations. The calculations have shown that the maximum temperature 
is attained inside the sample because of the evaporation of water 
from the biological-tissue surface. The influence of different parameters 
of laser radiation and mass transfer of water on the surface temperature, 
on the maximum value of the temperature, on the position of the temperature 
maximum, and on the characteristic time at which the diffusion-limited 
relaxation of stresses in the cartilaginous tissue occurs has been 
analyzed.

aInstitute of Problems of Laser and Information Technologies, 
Russian Academy of Sciences, Troitsk, Russia; email: sobol@laser.ru; 
bIntersectoral Supercomputer Center, Moscow, Russia; 
cScientific-Research Computation Center, M. V. Lomonosov Moscow 
State University, Moscow, Russia. 
Translated from Inzhenerno-Fizicheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 76, No. 2, pp. 94-100, 
March-April, 2003. Original article submitted June 13, 2002; 
revision submitted September 9, 2002.