Homogenization limit for electrical conduction in biological tissues in the radio-frequency rangeLimite d'homogénéisation pour la conduction électrique dans les tissus biologiques dans le domaine des radiofréquences

We study an evolutive model for electrical conduction in biological tissues, where the conductive intra-cellular and extracellular spaces are separated by insulating cell membranes. The mathematical scheme is an elliptic problem, with dynamical boundary conditions on the cell membranes. The problem is set in a finely mixed periodic medium. We show that the homogenization limit u₀ of the electric potential, obtained as the period of the microscopic structure approaches zero, solves the equation $\text{?}\text{div}\text{(σ}{}_0\text{?}{}_{\mathrm{x}}\text{u}{}_0\text{+A}{}^0\text{?}{}_{\mathrm{x}}\text{u}{}_0\text{+∫}{}_0{}^{\mathrm{t}}\text{A}{}^1\text{(t?τ)?}{}_{\mathrm{x}}\text{u}{}_0\text{(x,τ)}\text{d}\text{τ?}\text{F}\text{(x,t))=0}$ where σ₀>0 and the matrices A⁰, A¹ depend on geometric and material properties, while the vector function $\text{F}$ keeps trace of the initial data of the original problem. Memory effects explicitly appear here, making this elliptic equation of non standard type. To cite this article: M. Amar et al., C. R. Mecanique 331 (2003).