Safeguarding against Inactivation Temperatures during Plasma Treatment of Skin: Multiphysics Model and Phase Field Method

One of the most appealing applications of cold plasmas is medical treatment of the skin. An important concern is the capability to safeguard the non-targeted cells against inactivation temperatures during the plasma treatment. Unfortunately, it is problematic to experimentally determine the highest transient temperatures in these cells during the plasma treatment. In the present work, a complete multiphysics model was built based on finite element analysis using phase field method coupled with heat transfer and fluid dynamics to study the discharge phenomenon of cold plasma with helium carrier gas ejected out of a tube for skin treatment. In such plasmas with carrier gas, the fractions of plasma constituents are small compared to the carrier gas, so thermofluid analysis is needed for the carrier gas as the major contributor to the fluid and heat flow. The phase field method has been used to capture the moving helium gas in air, which has enabled us to compute fluid dynamics parameters for each phase individually. In addition to computational fluid dynamic analyses, we have also considered heat transfer in the fluids and to the skin using the Fourier law of heat conduction, which led to a multiphysics system. In the present paper, various flow velocities and tube-to-target distances (TTDs) have been considered to reveal the dependence of the fluid discharge output parameters on the flow and efficiency of heat transfer to the skin and the surrounding environment. The built model is a useful tool for future development of plasma treatment devices and to safeguard the non-targeted cells against inactivation temperatures