Relationship between acoustic power and acoustic radiation force on absorbing and reflecting targets for spherically focusing radiators.

ABSTRACT

Total acoustic output power is an important parameter required by standards for most ultrasonic medical equipment including high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) systems. Radiation force balances are routinely used; however, radiation force is not strictly dependent on the ultrasound power but, rather, on the wave momentum resolved in one direction. Consequently, measurements based on radiation force become progressively less accurate as the ultrasound wave deviates further from a true plane wave. HIFU transducers can be very strongly focused with F-numbers less than one under these conditions, the uncertainty associated with use of the radiation force method becomes very significant. International Standards IEC 61161 and IEC 62555 suggest plane-wave correction factors for unfocused transducers radiating onto an ideal absorbing target and focusing corrections for focused transducers radiating onto ideal absorbing targets and onto conical reflecting targets (IEC 61161). Previous models have relied on calculations based on the Rayleigh integral, which is not strictly correct for curved sources. In the work described here, an approach combining finite element methods with a discretization of the Helmholtz equation was developed, making it possible to model the boundary condition at the structure/fluid interface more correctly. This has been used to calculate the relationship between radiation force and total power for both absorbing and conical reflecting targets for transducers ranging from planar to an F-number of 0.5 (hemispherical) and to compare with the recommendations of IEC 61161 and IEC 62555.