Heat and Mass Transfer https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-019-02703-0 ORIGINAL Numerical study on the cryosurgery of gel mimicking tissue phantoms Vikash Kumar Sharma 1 · Amitesh Kumar 1 Received: 25 October 2018 / Accepted: 8 July 2019 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2019 Abstract Curing of cancerous tumour using cryosurgery is accepted in the present time. But still its adoption is challenged because of its lower efficacy and a threat to the healthy cells. It is difficult to stop the lethal front from entering into healthy tissue zone. Therefore, complete destruction of defected tissue along with protection of neighboring healthy tissue is of main concern. To vanquish these constraints, many approaches have been used so far. In this numerical analysis, an approach is proposed in which a localised specific solution with lower thermal conductivity is injected to cover the axial portion of tumour. For this purpose, perfluorohexane is used which has a low thermal conductivity. With this novel approach, freezing becomes very fast and significant along with the minimal damage to the surrounding health tissue. It also helps in achieving lethal temperature in shorter time span. The propagation of the lethal front is calculated numerically. These real time lethal volume data helps the clinical practitioners in estimation of extent of freezing necrosis and time duration for cryosurgery. A parametric study was performed on tissue mimicking gel with various insertion depths of cryoprobe and different concentrations of gel. Both the parameters have a remarkable effect on the amount of freezing. The problem is analyzed using multi block structured grid and numerical results obtained showed good compliance to the experimental data. Keywords Cryosurgery · Efficacy · Multi block grid · Lethal volume · Numerical simulation Nomenclature k thermal conductivity W/m 0 C or W/m-K ρ density kg/m 3 L latent heat J/kg c specific heat J/kg-K T temperature 0 C H total specific enthalpy J/kg h specific sensible enthalpy J/kg t time s z axial distance m r radial distance m ID insertion depth m v Volume m 3 w/v weight/volume g/ml FL liquid fraction dimensionless T l liquidus temperature 0 C T s solidus temperature 0 C T m melting temperature 0 C  Amitesh Kumar amitesh.mec@iitbhu.ac.in 1 Department of Mechanical Engineering Indian Institute of Technology (BHU), Varanasi 221005, India Subscripts u Unfrozen tissue f frozen tissue l Liquidus s solidus m melting 1 Introduction In the past few decades, cancer emerges as a most occurring disease. Reports of World Health Organization (WHO) indi- cates that cancer is the second leading cause of death and was responsible for 8.8 million deaths in 2015. Globally, out of 6 deaths nearly 1 is due to cancer [1]. Because of its high mortality rate, an emphasis is being made to find some advance and safe cure. Although, a lot of curing methods like radiation therapy, chemotherapy, surgical ablation and hyperthermia exist but these treatments can have destruc- tive side effects. Since both extreme hot and cold conditions lead to the cell destruction, so both are used according to their advantages and limitations. Now a days, many studies are carried out for optimum utilization of low temperature