Electroporation is a phenomenon in which pores form in the cell membrane due to the application of an external electric field. These pores increase the membrane’s electrical conductivity and permeability to molecules that would not normally pass through under standard conditions. Electroporation has been studied extensively, as it is widely used in various fields such as biotechnology, the food industry, and medicine. A significant amount of research has been conducted on both animal (biomedical) and plant (food industry) cells and tissues. In the context of electroporation, plants such as potatoes, apples, and carrots are among the most thoroughly studied.
The goal of this master’s thesis is to develop a simulation model of electroporation in potato tissue, with results that closely match experimental data from actual studies. The aim is to demonstrate that electroporation can be reliably simulated using computational models. For building the model, I obtained information on cell sizes in potato tissue from a paper containing an extensive image dataset, while the remaining necessary parameters—such as the output voltage of the pulse generator, the electrical conductivity of the tissue, the threshold voltage for electroporation, and others—were sourced from relevant literature.
Based on this data, I included randomly distributed cells of six different sizes in the simulation model to closely approximate the actual structure and distribution of cells in real tissue. The simulation was conducted in the time domain—not to capture a time-dependent phenomenon, but rather as a technical workaround within the COMSOL software, which allows for analysis at varying electric field strengths within a single simulation cycle. The results thus illustrate the onset of electroporation at increasing electric field intensities, as well as the corresponding changes in conductivity of individual cells and of the tissue as a whole.
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