Abstract
The pressure eld emitted from multi-element medical ultrasound transducers can be simulated with Field II
in the linear regime. By expanding this program's application to the nonlinear regime, beamforming schemes
can be studied under strong focusing and high pressure levels as well, providing a valuable tool for simulating
ultrasound harmonic imaging. An extended version of Field II is obtained by means of operator splitting.
The pressure eld is calculated by propagation of the eld from the transducer through a number of planes.
Every plane serves as a virtual aperture for the next plane, and nonlinear distortion is accounted for by the
lossless Burgers' Equation. This method has no plane-wave approximation and the full eects of diraction,
attenuation, and nonlinear wave propagation can be observed under electronic focusing of array transducers
in medical ultrasound systems. A single example of the approach is demonstrated by comparing results from
simulations and measurements from a convex array transducer. The new simulation tool is capable of simulating
the formation of higher harmonics in water on the acoustical axis. The generation of nonlinear higher harmonic
components can be predicted with an accuracy of 2.6 dB and 2.0 dB for the second and third harmonic,
respectively
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Proc. SPIE - Progress in biomedical optics and imaging |
| Publisher | SPIE - International Society for Optical Engineering |
| Publication date | 2002 |
| Pages | 59-67 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2002 |
Keywords
- Nonlinear Acoustics
- Ultrasound
- Ultrasound Field Simulation
- Harmonic Imaging
- Field II