Basic Transport Phenomena in Biomedical Engineering

Citation

Fournier, R. L. (2018). Basic Transport Phenomena in Biomedical Engineering (4th ed.). CRC Press.

Chapter Summary

The fourth edition has eleven chapters and runs to roughly 630–650 pages, depending on the catalogue. The sequence is easy to read from the contents: a short introduction, three chapters that prepare the physical and physiological ground (thermodynamics, body fluids and membranes, blood), two chapters on mass transfer, and then oxygen transport, pharmacokinetics and three chapters on devices and engineered tissues. The publisher's description presents the book as covering momentum and mass transport, with the design of medical devices as the destination.

Chapter 1: Introduction

The opening chapter frames the subject. The publisher's description also lists a review of units and dimensions with tips for solving engineering problems among the book's contents, material aimed at readers who are still building habits of engineering problem solving; the contents do not say which chapter carries it.

Chapter 2: A review of thermodynamic concepts

Thermodynamics comes before any transport. The publisher describes this part as an investigation of thermodynamic concepts with an emphasis on the properties of solutions, the background needed for osmosis and membrane behaviour in the next chapter.

Chapter 3: Physical properties of the body fluids and the cell membrane

This chapter turns to the body's fluids and the membrane that separates compartments. The description names body fluids and osmosis and membrane filtration among the in-depth topics.

Chapter 4: The physical and flow properties of blood and other fluids

The fluid-flow material appears to be gathered here, under the physical and flow properties of blood and other fluids.

Chapters 5–6: Mass transfer fundamentals; Mass transfer in heterogeneous materials

Two chapters develop mass transfer, first as fundamentals and then in heterogeneous materials. The publisher lists solute transport among the topics treated in depth.

Chapter 7: Oxygen transport in biological systems

Oxygen transport is given a chapter of its own, following the two mass-transfer chapters with a chapter on one solute.

Chapter 8: Pharmacokinetic analysis

Pharmacokinetic analysis, listed by the publisher alongside solute and oxygen transport, deals with the movement and fate of drugs in the body.

Chapters 9–11: Extracorporeal devices; Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine; Bioartificial organs

The final three chapters are the applications the earlier material was building toward. The publisher says the chemical and physical transport processes are used in the development of artificial organs, bioartificial organs, controlled drug delivery systems and tissue engineering, and that the new edition pays particular attention to tissue engineering and organ regeneration.

Key Concepts

Chapters 1–4: Introduction through blood

• Thermodynamics of solutions: the properties of solutions, named in the description as the emphasis of the thermodynamics review.
• Osmosis and membrane filtration: how fluid and solutes are exchanged across the cell membrane, the subject of the body-fluids chapter.
• Flow properties of blood: the physical and flow properties of blood and other fluids in Chapter 4.

Chapters 5–8: Transport and pharmacokinetics

• Mass transfer in heterogeneous materials: transfer of solute through composite media, the title of Chapter 6.
• Oxygen transport: the transport of oxygen in biological systems, Chapter 7.
• Pharmacokinetic analysis: quantitative description of drug distribution and elimination, Chapter 8.

Chapters 9–11: Devices and engineered tissues

• Extracorporeal devices: devices that operate outside the body, Chapter 9.
• Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine: Chapter 10.
• Bioartificial organs: Chapter 11.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• A clear path from principles to devices. The contents move from thermodynamics and body fluids to mass transfer, oxygen and drug transport, and only then to extracorporeal devices, tissue engineering and bioartificial organs, so each application chapter has its tools already in place.
• Written for mixed audiences. The publisher names students in biomedical, chemical and mechanical engineering, biotechnology, bioengineering, medicine and the life sciences as the readership, and adds a review of units and dimensions with problem-solving tips, which lowers the entry barrier for readers from outside chemical engineering.
• Device and tissue focus. The stated aim is the transport processes behind artificial organs, bioartificial organs, controlled drug delivery and tissue engineering, which gives a transport course a concrete biomedical purpose.
• Revised for this edition. Google Books carries a pre-publication description of the edition that announced new emphasis on tissue engineering and organ regeneration, worked solutions placed within the text rather than in a separate manual, and the first use of MATLAB. The Routledge page confirms the tissue engineering chapter title.

Limitations

• No heat transfer. The publisher describes the book as covering momentum and mass transport, and the chapter titles show no energy or heat-transport chapter. Courses that treat bioheat transfer need another text.
• Few details beyond chapter titles. The public contents list only chapter titles. Readers should check a sample chapter or the preface for the level of the mathematics, the number of problems and how much the MATLAB material contributes.
• Long chapters. Eleven chapters over more than six hundred pages average about sixty pages each, so a semester course will need to choose among the application chapters rather than cover everything.

Where It Fits in the Course

Fournier is the biomedical-engineering route into transport that ends in devices. Bird, Stewart, Lightfoot and Klingenberg's Introductory Transport Phenomena is the general chemical-engineering undergraduate text that develops momentum, heat and mass transfer in parallel, and it is a useful companion when the physics of the balances needs more depth. Rubenstein, Yin and Frame's Biofluid Mechanics is the fuller treatment of fluid mechanics through the circulation, for readers who want more fluids than one chapter on blood and other fluids provides.

Roselli and Diller's Biotransport is the closest alternative: it treats fluid, heat and mass transport in parallel, so it is the better choice if heat transfer is required, whereas Fournier gives pharmacokinetics, extracorporeal devices and bioartificial organs. For cell membranes and excitable cells at graduate level, Friedman's Principles and Models of Biological Transport is more specialised, and Truskey, Yuan and Katz's Transport Phenomena in Biological Systems is a quantitative bridge between transport theory and physiology, covering fluid flow, diffusion, reaction and electrokinetic processes.

How to Use This Book

The book suits upper-division undergraduates and first-year graduate students in biomedical or chemical engineering who have had calculus, differential equations and introductory chemistry and physics, and it can serve mechanical engineering, biotechnology and life-science students with some quantitative background. The publisher lists no prerequisites; calculus, differential equations and introductory chemistry and physics are the sensible assumption, and a prior fluid mechanics or mass-transfer course would help.

A practical plan: read Chapters 1–4 in order as the foundation, then take Chapters 5–7 as the core transport sequence. Chapter 8 matters most for readers with drug-delivery or pharmacology interests. Chapters 9–11 are best chosen according to the project or course emphasis: extracorporeal devices for dialysis and oxygenation, tissue engineering for regenerative applications, bioartificial organs for integrated design. Whatever the chapter, set up each balance yourself before reading a worked solution, and use the problems to practise choosing assumptions and checking units.