Ultrasound simulation of complex flow velocity fields based on computational fluid dynamics

Area of Science:

• Medical Imaging
• Biomedical Engineering
• Computational Fluid Dynamics

Background:

• Accurate modeling of blood flow is crucial for developing realistic ultrasound (US) Doppler signal simulations.
• Traditional analytical models of blood flow are insufficient for capturing complex hemodynamics.
• Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) offers a powerful tool for deriving realistic blood flow velocity fields.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a simulation environment for developing flow-related ultrasound algorithms.
• To elaborate on creating CFD-based phantoms for ultrasound simulations.
• To enable flexible control of flow and US imaging parameters for algorithm improvement.

Main Methods:

• Blood flow was modeled using velocity fields from CFD simulations.
• Blood was represented as a collection of point scatterers.
• Resulting Radio Frequency (RF) signals were retrieved using an existing ultrasound simulation model.
• The method was validated using a straight tube and a carotid bifurcation model.

Main Results:

• The simulation environment successfully generated realistic Doppler signals.
• Estimated flow velocities closely matched CFD reference data.
• The method demonstrated accuracy in both color flow imaging and pulsed-wave Doppler simulations.
• Validation was performed on a straight tube and a stenosed carotid bifurcation.

Conclusions:

• Coupling CFD flow fields with ultrasound models provides a flexible approach for developing and improving US imaging algorithms.
• The presented method is effective for simulating complex blood flow scenarios.
• Future work can incorporate wall mechanics into the simulation environment.