Analysis of heat transfer and burn damage in a laser irradiated living tissue with the generalized dual-phase-lag model

•The generalized dual-phase-lag model with the spatially-varied source was solved.•The relation between the phase lag times demonstrates the thermal response in tissue.•The larger porosity more easily causes thermal damage.•Porosity and coupling factor are particularly important to the generalized DPL model.

For considering the non-equilibrium effect, the present paper uses the generalized dual-phase-lag model of bioheat transfer to describe the thermal behavior in a laser irradiated living tissue. The thermal damage is also estimated with the Arrhenius equation. The hybrid application of the Laplace transform and the modified discretization technique is employed to solve the present problem. The non-reduction of the generalized dual-phase-lag model to the Pennes equation is further explored. The effects of that the phase lag times depend on the porosity, heat capacities of blood and tissues, coupling factor, and the ratio of thermal conductivity of tissue and blood are taken into account. The results show that the generalized DPL bioheat transfer equation cannot reduce to the Pennes and classical DPL bioheat transfer equations, even with the effect of spatial heating source. Porosity and coupling factor are particularly important to the generalized DPL model. The relation between the phase lag times would demonstrate the characteristics of thermal response in tissue.