Hyperthermia Therapy of a Cancer Tissue ANSYS Fluent CFD Simulation Training

Hyperthermia Therapy Description

Common methods of cancer treatment include surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy. These methods have disadvantages, including aggressiveness, irreversibility, and side effects. Warming in Hyperthermia Therapy prevents oxygen and nutrients from getting into the unhealthy tissue. In this way, proteins within the tissue change nature and can surround the cancer cells. This makes it possible for the immune system to identify cancer cells.

The present study examined blood flow in capillaries passing through a tissue containing cancerous tumors using Hyperthermia Therapy by ANSYS Fluent software. For this purpose, we assume a spherical space to be an example of healthy body tissue or cell in which blood flows slowly.

There are several veins within this tissue. The vein structure of cells and tissues of the body are like bushes. To simplify the problem, we assumed that all the veins align uniformly in the tissue (X-axis).

There are four spherical cancerous tumors of different diameters at the center of this tissue and on the surface of the veins as Biological Tissue. The thermophysical properties of healthy tissue differ from those of cancer cells. However, to simplify this, we assume the thermophysical properties of the healthy tissue are similar to the unhealthy cells.

Every cancerous tissue is a heat source with heat energy per unit of volume to cause heat transfer and thereby significantly increase blood flow. This study aims to investigate the response of blood vessels and body tissues to this heat in hyperthermia therapy.

Incoming blood flow to the capillary has a magnitude of 0.08 m/s and a temperature of 310.15 kelvin. Also, blood flow around the capillary has a velocity equal to 0.000035 m/s and a temperature of 310.15 kelvin. We have designed the geometry using ANSYS Design modeler software. We also created the mesh on this geometry using ANSYS meshing software.

The mesh type is unstructured with 717087 cells.

Methodology

We activate this simulation’s energy equation to consider the heat transfer effect of hyperthermia therapy. The tissue is a porous medium as the blood flows through the capillaries through the empty cavities within the tissues. The value of the porosity coefficient is equal to the ratio of the volume of vacant space to the total space volume, which is equal to 0.05.

According to the problem description, we subject heat to each of the four spherical cancer tissues by ultrasonic waves. The amount of heating per unit of the volume of the tissues is within ten seconds. Therefore, we use the Source Term option.

The UDF code defines the amount of heat applied per volume unit. The heat generation at the center point of each sphere is about 10,000,000 W.m-3. While at the other parts of the sphere, at a certain distance from the center, it is less than the defined heat.

So a UDF code will be needed to define the amount of heat per unit volume of spheres volume. This simulation is performed as unsteady (Transient).

Hyperthermia Therapy Conclusion

For the current simulation, we present both volume rendering (3D Contour) and contours of the domain’s velocity, pressure, and temperature and each component to give much insight into the problem. As can be seen from the contours, the temperature around the blood tumors is depicted in the Figures, which is the main challenge of this simulation.