Computation of nonlinear ultrasound fields using a linearized contrast source method

Nonlinear ultrasound is important in medical diagnostics because imaging of the higher harmonics improves resolution and reduces scattering artifacts. Second harmonic imaging is currently standard, and higher harmonic imaging is under investigation. The efficient development of novel imaging modalities and equipment requires accurate simulations...

Linearization strategies for the Iterative Nonlinear Contrast Source method for full-wave simulation of nonlinear ultrasound fields

The Iterative Nonlinear Contrast Source (INCS) method is a full-wave method for the accurate computation of wide-angle, pulsed, nonlinear ultrasound fields appearing in, e.g., medical echoscopy. The method is based on the Westervelt equation and considers the occurring nonlinear term as a distributed contrast source that operates in a linear...

Comparison of fundamental, second harmonic, and superharmonic imaging: A simulation study

In medical ultrasound, fundamental imaging (FI) uses the reflected echoes from the same spectral band as that of the emitted pulse. The transmission frequency determines the trade-off between penetration depth and spatial resolution. Tissue harmonic imaging (THI) employs the second harmonic of the emitted frequency band to construct images....

A contrast source method for nonlinear acoustic wave fields in media with spatially inhomogeneous attenuation

Experimental data reveals that attenuation is an important phenomenon in medical ultrasound. Attenuation is particularly important for medical applications based on nonlinear acoustics, since higher harmonics experience higher attenuation than the fundamental. Here, a method is presented to accurately solve the wave equation for nonlinear...

An iterative method for the computation of nonlinear, wide-angle, pulsed acoustic fields of medical diagnostic transducers

The development and optimization of medical ultrasound transducers and imaging modalities require a computational method that accurately predicts the nonlinear acoustic pressure field. A prospective method should provide the wide-angle, pulsed field emitted by an arbitrary planar source distribution and propagating in a three-dimensional, large...

A filtered convolution method for the computation of acoustic wave fields in very large spatiotemporal domains

The full-wave computation of transient acoustic fields with sizes in the order of 100x100x100 wavelengths by 100 periods requires a numerical method that is extremely efficient in terms of storage and computation. Iterative integral equation methods offer a good performance on these points, provided that the recurring spatiotemporal convolutions...