Modelling of heat and mass transfer processes in neonatology

This paper reviews some of our recent applications of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to model heat and mass transfer problems in neonatology and investigates the major heat and mass transfer mechanisms taking place in medical devices such as incubators and oxygen hoods. This includes novel mathematical developments giving rise to a supplementary model, entitled Infant Heat Balance Module, which has been fully integrated with the CFD solver and its graphical interface. The numerical simulations are validated through comparison tests with experimental results from the medical literature. It is shown that CFD simulations are very flexible tools that can take into account all modes of heat transfer in assisting neonatal care and the improved design of medical devices

Heat and mass transfer under an infant radiant warmer – Development of a numerical model

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Medical Engineering & Physics. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2010 Elsevier B.V.The main objectives of this paper are to present a procedure of how to create and set up a model for the physical processes that take place within an infant radiant warmer and to validate that Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) can be used to resolve such problems. In this study, the results are obtained for a simplified model, both in terms of the geometry employed and the prescribed boundary conditions. The results were numerically verified in terms of the convergence history, monitor data and the physical correctness. This study shows that the physical situation is unsteady and the results tend to oscillate, almost periodically, around a mean value. The results presented in the paper are found to be in qualitative agreement with the experimental data. This gives us confidence that the techniques employed in this paper are appropriate and form the starting point for the inclusion of more realistic effects, e.g. real shape of the newborn and radiant lamp, heat generated inside the newborn, moisture transport, etc.European Union Marie Curie Fellowship programm

An overview of recent applications of computational modelling in neonatology

This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.This paper reviews some of our recent applications of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to model heat and mass transfer problems in neonatology and investigates the major heat and mass transfer mechanisms taking place in medical devices such as incubators, radiant warmers and oxygen hoods. It is shown that CFD simulations are very flexible tools that can take into account all modes of heat transfer in assisting neonatal care and improving the design of medical devices.Brunel Open Access Publishing Fun

Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? Finding orthologs in the twilight and midnight zones of sequence similarity

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