In-silico study of physiological and environmental factors influencing the ocular thermal profile

In this study, a two-dimensional simulation of the human eye is performed to assess the effects of various physiological and environmental factors such as hypoxia/hyperoxia, mobility of aqueous humor, physical activity, tear evaporation, and ambient temperature on temperature profile inside the eye. The simulation outcomes are compared with the experimental data reported in the literature and the relative error is less than 9%, confirming the validity of the modeling. Blinking and systolic blood pressure appear to have negligible resistive effects against temperature fluctuations. Physical activity shows a direct relationship with the eye temperature, whereas oxygen concentration in the inhaled air has a minute effect and it is inversely related to the eye temperature. The deviation of the eye temperature from the core body temperature is also greater for the tear evaporation rates less than normal condition. When ambient temperature increases from about 0 to 30°C, anterior parts of the eye increase by 4.7°C while the posterior parts increase by 0.5°C. Conversely, when the convective heat transfer coefficient goes up from 5 to 35, the temperature of the anterior and posterior parts of the eye reduces by 3.7 and 0.5°C, respectively.