Author(s)

R.D. Rojas, E.F. Bell & E.L. Dove

Abstract

A thermodynamic mathematical model of premature infants placed in an infant incubator was developed in order to improve the control algorithm of this incubator. The premature infant's head was represented by a sphere, and the trunk and upper and lower extremities were represented by three cylinders. The sphere and cylinders were divided into two or three concentric layers to represent skin, muscle and core as appropriate for each anatomical structure. Heat flow between adjacent layers was modeled by conduction, and all layers exchanged heat by convection

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