Abstract
Ticks are widespread ectoparasites. They feed on blood of animals like birds and mammals, including humans. They are carriers and transmitters of pathogens, which cause many diseases, including tick-borne meningoencephalitis, lyme borreliosis, typhus to name few. The best way to prevent infection is to remove the ticks from the host as soon as possible. The removal usually is performed mechanically by pulling the tick. This however is a risky process. Tick irritation or injury may result in it vomiting infective fluids.
On a quest of creating of a portable device, which utilizes radio-frequency alternating current for contact-less tick removal, we simulate the thermo-electrical processes of the device application. We use the finite element method, to obtain both the current density inside the host and the tick, and the created temperature field. The computational domain consists of the host’s skin, the tick, the electrodes, and air.
Experiments on nested grids are performed to ensure numerical correctness of the obtained solutions. Various electrode configurations are investigated. The goal is to find suitable working parameters – applied power, duration, position for the procedure.
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Acknowledgment
This work is partially supported by the project AComIn “Advanced Computing for Innovation”, grant 316087, funded by the FP7 Capacity Program. The collaboration with the development team from AMET Ltd is also acknowledged.
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Kosturski, N., Lirkov, I., Margenov, S., Vutov, Y. (2015). Thermoelectrical Tick Removal Process Modeling. In: Lirkov, I., Margenov, S., Waśniewski, J. (eds) Large-Scale Scientific Computing. LSSC 2015. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9374. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26520-9_41
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26520-9_41
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