Abstract
A general bioheat equation for local tissue heat transfer has been derived exploiting a volume averaging theory. The volume averaged energy equations obtained for the arterial blood, venous blood and tissue were combined together to form a single energy equation in terms of the tissue temperature alone. The resulting energy equation turns out to be remarkably simple as we define the effective thermal conductivity tensor, which accounts for the countercurrent heat exchange mechanism. This bioheat equation can be coupled with the energy equations of large artery and vein in order to investigate the temperature field in a deep tissue layer "core tissue layer" in a human arm. Such a multiscale numerical analysis is described in detail.
