Abstract—The physical exercise imposes challenges on the human thermoregulatory system, as heat exchange between body and environment is substantially impaired which can lead to decrease in performance and increased risk of heat illness. In view of above a three dimensional finite difference model is proposed to study the effect of physical exercise on temperature distribution in peripheral regions of human limbs under moderate and hot climatic conditions. Human limb is assumed to have cylindrical cross section. The peripheral regions of human limbs is divided into three natural components namely epidermis, dermis and subdermal tissues. The model incorporates the effect of important physiological parameters like blood mass flow rate, metabolic heat generation, and thermal conductivity of the tissues. Appropriate boundary conditions have been framed based on the physical conditions of the problem. Explicit Finite Difference Method (EFDM) has been employed along time and spatial variable to obtain the solution. The numerical results have been used to obtain the temperature profiles in the region immediately after exercise for an unsteady state case. The results have been used to study the thermal stress caused by the different intensities of physical exercise.
 

Index Terms—metabolic heat generation, blood mass flow rate, thermal conductivity, finite difference method

Cite: Babita kumari and Neeru Adlakha, "Three Dimensional Finite Difference Model to Study the Thermal Stress in Peripheral Regions of Human Limbs Immediately after Physical Exercise," International Journal of Pharma Medicine and Biological Sciences, Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 1-7, January 2018. doi: 10.18178/ijpmbs.7.1.1-7