A MODEL FOR THE TEAR FILM AND OCULAR SURFACE TEMPERATURE FOR PARTIAL BLINKS

Interfacial Phenom Heat Transf. 2013;1(4):357-381. doi: 10.1615/InterfacPhenomHeatTransfer.v1.i4.40.

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the dynamics of tear film and the associated temperature variation for partial blinks. We investigate the mechanism of fluid supply during partial blink cycles, and compare the film thickness with observation in vivo. We find that varying the thickness of the fluid layer beneath the moving upper lid improves the agreement for the in vivo measurement of tear film thickness after a half blink. By examining the flux of the fluid, we provide an explanation of this assumption. We also investigate the temperature dynamics both at the ocular surface and inside the simulated anterior chamber. Our simulation results suggest that the ocular surface temperature readjusts rapidly to normal temperature distribution after partial blinks.

Keywords: blinking; ocular surface temperature; spectral collocation; tear film.