Exergy analysis and human body behavior

Abstract

This chapter describes two applications of the exergy analysis in order to evaluate the behavior of human body and its systems. In the first one, the exergy destroyed rate and the exergy efficiency of the human body and its systems are determined. The proposed human body thermal model was divided into 15 cylinders with elliptical cross-sections (which leads to realistic dimensions) representing: head, neck, trunk, arms, forearms, hands, thighs, legs, and feet. For each cylinder a combination of the following tissues was considered: skin, fat, muscle, bone, brain, viscera, lung, and heart. In the second study, a model of the human respiratory and thermal system developed to perform the exergy analysis of the human body under physical activities is described. The analysis quantifies the rate at which oxygen is supplied to the lung and transported by the blood to the tissues, and the rate of carbon dioxide elimination.