A viscoacoustic wave equation solver using modified Born series

Area of Science:

• Medical physics
• Computational acoustics
• Biomedical engineering

Background:

• Medical ultrasound advancements necessitate efficient acoustic wave propagation simulators.
• Existing methods may lack speed, precision, or the ability to incorporate complex material properties.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce a novel frequency-domain numerical solver, the viscoacoustic Born series (VBS).
• To efficiently solve the two-dimensional/three-dimensional viscoacoustic wave equation for medical ultrasound simulations.

Main Methods:

• Developed the viscoacoustic Born series (VBS) as an extension of the convergent Born series.
• Incorporated sound speed, density, and attenuation into the VBS solver.
• Formulated theoretical preconditioning and a multiscale strategy for enhanced convergence, robustness, and efficiency.

Main Results:

• The VBS solver demonstrated effective and efficient performance in numerical tests.
• Successfully simulated acoustic wave propagation in fundamental and human tissue-mimicking models.
• Validated performance even in high-impedance scenarios, such as transcranial ultrasound.

Conclusions:

• The viscoacoustic Born series (VBS) provides a fast and precise solution for viscoacoustic wave propagation.
• The VBS solver is promising for advancing rapid focusing ultrasound and inversion-based imaging techniques.
• This development contributes to improved simulation capabilities in medical ultrasound.