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FEM has been used extensively to model the diffusion of light through scattering material. (See for example: NIRFAST software.

While I find it easy to understand the formulation of the diffusion equation as a finite element model, I don't quite understand the range of possible boundary conditions.

It seems that many examples illustrate the source at the boundary of the tissue. However, what occurs at the boundary between the scattering medium and media that do not scatter? For example:

  • From the sulci of the brain to the cerebral spinal fluid?

The problem I am trying to solve is illuminating whole blood in a cuvette. The cuvette is transparent plastic surrounded by air.

Can the FEM solution for scattering be used to model light transport from air to whole blood and back to air again?

Example of whole blood in a cuvette

If so, can someone provide:

  1. A reference
  2. A mathematical description of the boundary conditions to apply the the diffusion equation
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For me, finite element method (FEM) is useful when you need to discretize the space dimensions. It's a heavy process for complex structures. To simulate the light transport through cuvette with blood, you can try an approach more 'simple' (Monte Carlo method ?). Finally, I found a good reference here that summarizes the methods you can use in your case.

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  • $\begingroup$ I agree in general. I'm struggling to use values from the literature in various models. The models are described without parameters for blood. The parameters were measured using methods that were based upon different models. Trying to use the values in the literature for mu_s and mu_a with the right model has been difficult. So, I'm trying to use the values in several models to check my results. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 21, 2021 at 16:58

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