Purpose <p>The study examines the concentration of cryoprotectant (CPA) in an articular cartilage sample during cryopreservation by computing the effective diffusion coefficient using different material models–homogeneous and porous.</p> Methods <p>The mass transfer phenomenon is coupled to the effective diffusion coefficient, which is determined by three different approaches. The first and second models, based on the Einstein-Stokes equation and the Arrhenius expression, respectively, treat the sample as a homogeneous material, whilst the third considers it as a porous medium. The effective diffusion coefficient is additionally weakly coupled to the heat transfer phenomenon described by the Fourier equation, and the third variant is also strongly coupled to the concentration of CPA.</p> Results <p>The final section of the article presents example calculations for the selected cryopreservation method, and the results are compared with the experimental results. Depending on the method applied to estimate the effective diffusion coefficient, the maximal relative errors in relation to experimental results are equal to 15.82%, 5.20%, and 24.96%, respectively.</p> Conclusion <p>A decrease in temperature and an increase in the concentration of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) cause a reduction of the effective diffusion coefficient. Moreover, in the model considering the porosity of the sample, the lowest values of the effective diffusion coefficient were obtained. This study’s novelty lies in its comparative analysis of homogeneous and porous models, as well as its explicit coupling of temperature, concentration, and diffusion processes during cryopreservation.</p>