Law of cooling, heat conduction and Stefan-Boltzmann radiation laws fitted to experimental data for bones irradiated by CO2 laser

The rate of cooling of domesticated pig bones is investigated within the temperature range of 20 degrees C-320 degrees C. Within the afore-mentioned temperature range, it was found that different behaviors in the rate of cooling were taking place. For bones reaching a temperature within the lower temperature range of 20 degrees C-50 degrees C, it was found that the rate of cooling is mostly governed by the empirical Newton's law of cooling. It is also shown that a transition is taking place somewhere within 50 degrees C-100 degrees C, where both the heat conduction equation and Newton's law apply. As bones can be raised at a fairly high temperature before burning, it was found that the rate of cooling within the range 125 degrees C-320 degrees C is mostly behaving according to the heat conduction equation and Stefan-Boltzmann radiation law. A pulsed CO2 laser was used to heat the bones up to a given temperature and the change of temperature as a function of time was recorded by non-contact infrared thermometer during the cooling period. (C) 2014 Optical Society of America