Document Type

Thesis

Date of Award

Spring 5-31-2016

Degree Name

Master of Science in Materials Science and Engineering - (M.S.)

Department

Committee for the Interdisciplinary Program in Materials Science and Engineering

First Advisor

N. M. Ravindra

Second Advisor

Costas G. Gogos

Third Advisor

Michael Jaffe

Fourth Advisor

Nicolas Ioannidis

Abstract

In recent years, transdermal drug delivery patches (TDDP) have developed rapidly. This is because the TDD system has more advantages than traditional drug delivery systems such as oral medicine and intravenous injection. In order to reach the circulatory system of the human body, drug molecules have to pass through the epidermis (outer layer) of the skin. The barrier properties of epidermis originate from low permeability of stratum corneum (SC) which is the outermost layer of the human skin. The objective of this thesis is to build a Finite Element (FE) model, utilizing commercial FE software (ANSYS), that can be implemented to estimate parameters of diffusion as well as common diffusion cell experiments. Use of the regular geometry, “brick and mortar”, to simulate tortuous intercellular route of SC is presented. It is assumed that diffusion occurs only within the SC lipids and the lipids are isotropic. The steady-state flux and lag time are solved and compared with the analytical results.

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