Ultrasonic tomographic reconstruction of liquid flows using phase-conjugate waves

The possibility of using phase conjugation in ultrasonic tomography to reconstruct the distribution of liquid flow velocities is discussed. The results of experiments aimed at reconstructing the distribution of flow velocities in the vortex cross section by the back projection method are shown. A mathematical model of acoustic wave propagation in a medium with a stationary liquid flow and an algorithm for reconstructing the velocity distribution using a 64-element acoustic antenna have been developed. The results of numerical experiment are discussed.     

Tomographic imaging of absolute optical absorption coefficient in turbid media using combined photoacoustic and diffusing light measurements

We present a new method that can provide high resolution images of absolute optical absorption coefficient in heterogeneous turbid media. In this method, acoustic measurements in conventional photoacoustic tomography are combined with diffusing light measurements to separate the product of absorption coefficient and optical fluence or photon density. We validate this method using a series of tissuelike phantom experiments. The experimental results show that targets as small as 0.5 mm in diameter with optical absorption contrasts as low as 1.5 relative to a 50 mm diameter scattering background medium can be clearly detected.     

Detection of ultrasound-modulated photons in diffuse media using the photorefractive effect

Ultrasound-modulated optical tomography is a dual-wave sensing technique in which diffusive light in a turbid medium interacts with an imposed acoustic field. A phase-modulated photon field emanates from the interaction region and carries with it information about the optomechanical properties of the medium. We present a technique for detection of ultrasound-induced optical phase modulation using an adaptive, photorefractive-crystal-based interferometry system. Experimental results are presented demonstrating detection of ultrasound-modulated signals in highly scattering media by use of pulsed ultrasound insonation.     

Experimental study of the potential of multichannel acoustic thermotomography

We describe the results of experimental studies of reconstruction of the temperature profiles from heated sources using the method of acoustic thermometry performed with the help of a multichannel scanning acoustic thermotomograph. The sensitivity of an actual system is estimated. The results of laboratory experiments on the localization of heated objects in the medium with absorption and the results of in vivo experiments on the recording of variation of the acoustic-brightness temperature of human extremities in response to an external thermal effect are presented. Institute of Applied Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia. Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Radiofizika, Vol. 42, No. 5, pp. 479–484, May 1999.     

Localisation and phase transition of acoustic waves in a soft medium containing air bubbles

We study via numerical experiments the localisation property of an acoustic wave in a viscoelastic soft medium containing randomly-distributed air bubbles. The behaviours of the oscillation phases of bubbles are particularly investigated in various cases for distinguishing efficiently the acoustic localisation from the effects of acoustic absorption caused by the viscosity of medium. The numerical results reveal the phenomenon of `phase transition' characterized by an unusual collective oscillation of bubbles, which is an effective criterion to unambiguously identify the acoustic localisation in the presence of viscosity. Within the localisation region, the phenomenon of phase transition persists, and a remarkable decrease in the fluctuation of the oscillation phases of bubbles is observed. The localisation phenomenon will be impaired by the enhancement of the viscosity factors, and the extent to which the acoustic wave is localised may be determined by appropriately analyzing the values of the oscillation phases or the amount of reduction of the phase fluctuation. The results are particularly significant for the practical experiments in an attempt to observe the acoustic localisation in such a medium, which is in general subjected to the interference of the great ambiguity resulting from the effect of acoustic absorption.     

Acoustic nonlinearity parameter tomography for biological tissues via parametric array from a circular piston source--theoretical analysis and computer simulations

The acoustic nonlinearity parameter B/A describes the nonlinear features of a medium and may become a novel parameter for ultrasonic tissue characterization. This paper presents a theoretical analysis for acoustic nonlinear parameter tomography via a parametric array. As two primary waves of different frequencies are radiated simultaneously from a circular piston source, a secondary wave at the difference frequency is generated due to the nonlinear interaction of the primary waves. The axial and radial distributions of sound pressure amplitude for the generated difference frequency wave in the near field are calculated by a superposition of Gaussian beams. The calculated results indicated that the difference frequency component of the parametric array grows linearly with distance from the piston source. It therefore provides a better source to do the acoustic nonlinearity parameter tomography because the fundamental and second harmonic signals both have a near field that goes through many oscillations due to diffraction. By using a finite-amplitude insert substitution method and a filtered convolution algorithm, a computer simulation for B/A tomography from the calculated sound pressure of the difference frequency wave is studied. For biological tissues, the sound attenuation is considered and compensated in the image reconstruction. Nonlinear parameter computed tomography (CT) images for several biological sample models are obtained with quite good quality in this study.     

Sound field of thermoacoustic tomography based on a modified finite-difference time-domain method

A modified finite-difference time-domain （FDTD） method is proposed for the sound field simulation of the thermoacoustic tomography （TAT） in the acoustic speed inhomogeneous medium. First, the basic equations of the TAT are discretized to difference ones by the FDTD. Then the electromagnetic pulse, the excitation source of the TAT, is modified twice to eliminate the error introduced by high frequency electromagnetic waves. Computer simulations are carried out to validate this method. It is shown that the FDTD method has a better accuracy than the commonly used time-of-flight （TOF） method in the TAT with the inhomogeneous acoustic speed. The error of the FDTD is ten times smaller than that of the TOF in the simulation for the acoustic speed difference larger than 50%. So this FDTD method is an efficient one for the sound field simulation of the TAT and can provide the theoretical basis for the study of reconstruction algorithms of the TAT in the acoustic heterogeneous medium.     

Acoustic cloaking by the wave flow method

The methods for calculating acoustic cloaking that is implemented by the wave flow method are reviewed, and the efficiency of this technique for cloaking regions with symmetries of three types is analyzed. It is shown that the main problem in implementing acoustic cloaking is the formation of an anisotropic medium with inhomogeneous components of the density tensor and bulk modulus, which change in a wide range and have limiting values of ∞ or 0 at the cloaking-region boundaries. Some estimates are obtained, according to which a stratified medium composed of a sequence of layers with different densities and compressibilities appears to be more promising, because it (i) is more easy to implement and (ii) opens possibilities for broadband cloaking. Analysis of different versions of the cloaking-region symmetry revealed that, using a layered medium, one can implement efficient acoustic cloaking only in the case of a spherically symmetric region.     

Pulse inversion ultrasound modulated optical tomography

Pulse inversion acoustic imaging is useful as it allows second harmonic imaging to be obtained with short acoustic pulses. This allows high axial resolution, but removes any overlap in the frequency spectra of fundamental and harmonic. We demonstrate pulse inversion ultrasound modulated optical tomography using an optical speckle based detection method. Inverted and non-inverted acoustic pulses combined with synchronized strobed illumination are applied to an optically scattering medium. Over the acquisition time of a camera, multiple pulses are summed and at the next frame the phase of the ultrasound is shifted by π/2 and the process repeated. Combining the two frames allows a second harmonic signal to be obtained. A reduction in linewidth is observed (DC=9.26 mm, fundamental=4.02 mm, second harmonic=2.43 mm) in line scans of optically absorbing objects embedded in a scattering medium (thickness=16 mm, scattering coefficient=2.3 mm(-1), anisotropy factor=0.938).     

Travel-time tomography in shallow water: experimental demonstration at an ultrasonic scale

Acoustic tomography in a shallow ultrasonic waveguide is demonstrated at the laboratory scale between two source-receiver arrays. At a 1/1,000 scale, the waveguide represents a 1.1-km-long, 52-m-deep ocean acoustic channel in the kilohertz frequency range. Two coplanar arrays record the transfer matrix in the time domain of the waveguide between each pair of source-receiver transducers. A time-domain, double-beamforming algorithm is simultaneously performed on the source and receiver arrays that projects the multi-reflected acoustic echoes into an equivalent set of eigenrays, which are characterized by their travel times and their launch and arrival angles. Travel-time differences are measured for each eigenray every 0.1 s when a thermal plume is generated at a given location in the waveguide. Travel-time tomography inversion is then performed using two forward models based either on ray theory or on the diffraction-based sensitivity kernel. The spatially resolved range and depth inversion data confirm the feasibility of acoustic tomography in shallow water. Comparisons are made between inversion results at 1 and 3 MHz with the inversion procedure using ray theory or the finite-frequency approach. The influence of surface fluctuations at the air-water interface is shown and discussed in the framework of shallow-water ocean tomography.     

Spectral estimation for characterization of acoustic aberration

Spectral estimation based on acoustic backscatter from a motionless stochastic medium is described for characterization of aberration in ultrasonic imaging. The underlying assumptions for the estimation are: The correlation length of the medium is short compared to the length of the transmitted acoustic pulse, an isoplanatic region of sufficient size exists around the focal point, and the backscatter can be modeled as an ergodic stochastic process. The motivation for this work is ultrasonic imaging with aberration correction. Measurements were performed using a two-dimensional array system with 80 x 80 transducer elements and an element pitch of 0.6 mm. The f number for the measurements was 1.2 and the center frequency was 3.0 MHz with a 53% bandwidth. Relative phase of aberration was extracted from estimated cross spectra using a robust least-mean-square-error method based on an orthogonal expansion of the phase differences of neighboring wave forms as a function of frequency. Estimates of cross-spectrum phase from measurements of random scattering through a tissue-mimicking aberrator have confidence bands approximately +/- 5 degrees wide. Both phase and magnitude are in good agreement with a reference characterization obtained from a point scatterer.     

Acoustic field outside a cylindrical region excited from inside

We present the results of numerical calculation of the acoustic field distribution in a structure consisting of three cylindrically symmetrical, infinitely long coaxial regions with identical constant density. The media in the inner and outer regions have the same sound velocity which is different from that in the intermediate region. In the inner region, a harmonic pressure source is located. Expressions for the acoustic fields in each region are derived and the field distribution in the outer region is determined. The numerical analysis is performed at the distances corresponding to the near field of the source. Characteristic features of the field structure as a function of the source frequency, the sizes of the system, and the acoustic parameters of the medium are determined. The results obtained can be used in geophysical prospecting for characterization of boreholes, in acoustic logging of wells, and in the problems of noise control near industrial and power plants.     

Reconstructive acoustic thermotomography of biological objects

An algebraic reconstructive tomography algorithm for mapping the internal temperature field in q section of a biological object is adapted for use in a multichannel scanning acoustic thermotomograph. For some types of thermodynamic temperature distribution, using the computer simulation method, the distributions of the acoustic brightness temperature are obtained allowing for the antenna system geometry and damping in the biological medium. Institute of Applied Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Radiofizika, Vol. 40, No. 6, pp. 752–760, June, 1997.     

Passive acoustic tomography of the ocean using arrays of unknown shape

It was recently established that ocean acoustic tomography based on an inversion of ray travel times can be implemented without use of any dedicated sound sources by cross-correlating the ambient noise recorded on two line arrays, the shapes of which are known. In contrast to active tomography, the amount of useful information from noise interferometry is proportional to the product of the numbers of receivers in the two arrays. In our study based on the 2D and 3D numerical experiments, we examine a hypothesis concerning the feasibility of simultaneous performance of a passive ray tomography and passive positioning of arrays through cross-correlation of ambient or shipping noise. The numerical experiments are conducted under conditions close to those of a field experiment on passive ocean tomography. It is demonstrated that, when using arrays of 20–40 hydrophones, the sound velocity profile and the array shape can be found from noise correlation to an accuracy adequate for oceanological and acoustic applications.     

声学CT复杂温度场重建研究

为提高声学CT复杂温度场重建能力,提出一种利用Markov径向基函数逼近和Tikhonov正则化的温度场重建算法,简称MTR算法。该算法首先用Markov径向基函数的线性组合,逼近介质中的复杂声速场分布,然后利用介质中多路径声波传播时间和Tikhonov正则化法,求解声速场分布,进而利用声速与温度的关系获得温度分布。对单热点、三热点和五热点温度场模型进行了仿真重建,结果表明MTR算法热点定位精度高,重建误差小。开发了声学CT温度场重建实验系统,用电加热器在内装1200 kg大豆的实验粮仓中形成热点,MTR重建结果能正确反映热点位置,热点温度重建误差1.3%。可见,MTR算法复杂温度场重建能力强,可望用于实际储粮温度分布监测。      

Application of focusing arrays to the problems of acoustic brightness thermometry

Theoretical and experimental studies on the localization of heated objects by the methods of acoustic brightness thermometry are carried out. It is demonstrated that, in the case of using a single focusing array, the spatial localization of heated objects depends on the size of the source. One-and two-dimensional tomography of a real heated source is performed by an acoustic thermal tomograph with a focusing array. The results agree well with the data calculated according to the suggested model. The applicability of correlation focusing acoustic brightness thermometry to the localization of a heated source is investigated both theoretically and experimentally. It is demonstrated that a considerable increase in the spatial resolution of the method leads to a significant loss in sensitivity.     

Simulation of the acoustic field emitted from medical linear transducer in a heterogeneous tissue

A numerical model is developed to simulate the acoustic field in heterogeneous tissue from a medical linear transducer.The coupled full-wave equation for nonlinear ultrasound is solved using a staggered-grid finite difference time domain method.The distribution of acoustic pressure and power in human abdominal wall with heterogeneities in sound speed,density,and nonlinear parameter are obtained.Compared with homogeneous medium,when sound speed in tissue is uniform and density unchanged,the acoustic energy decreases only1.8 dB in the focal region;when density in tissue is uniform and sound speed unchanged,the energy decreases 3.8 dB in the focal region,which is almost the same as heterogeneous tissue.Thus,the primary factor of the aberration of focused beam is the heterogeneous distribution of the tissue sound speed.     

Time-resolved laser optoacoustic tomography of inhomogeneous media

The methods of time-resolved laser optoacoustic tomography of inhomogeneous media and related problems are reviewed. Time-resolved laser optoacoustic tomography allows one to measure the distribution of light absorption in turbid media with depth resolution up to several microns in real time. The theory of laser excitation of acoustic waves by absorbing of light in particles, dispersed in transparent, light-absorbing or scattering media, is developed. The distribution of light absorption can be obtained from the temporal course of acoustic pressure. Two schemes of acoustic wave detection — in the medium under testing (direct detection) and in transparent medium, coupled to the investigated one (indirect detection) — are discussed. In both cases the reconstruction of light absorption can be made by simple calculations. Test experiments with homogeneous and layered media confirm the proposed theoretical models and the possibility of using the proposed experimental schemes. Light absorption in homogeneous, inhomogeneous media and in absorbing particles dispersed in turbid media was investigated. The experimental setup allows one to measure the absorption coefficients over the range 1-500 cm^–1 with the depth resolution 10–15 m over the depth 1–1.5 mm.     

The first results of observations of acoustic signals generated by cosmic ray muons in a seismically stressed medium

The first results of observations of acoustic signals generated by high-energy muons of extensive air showers, which propagate in a seismically stressed medium are presented. The cosmophysical method for monitoring the volume stressed state is tested using the experimental setup developed in the earthquake-prone region of Almaty at the Tien Shan High-Altitude Scientific Station of the Lebedev Physical Institute. High-amplitude acoustic signals correlated with the passage and interaction of muon groups in the Earth’s crust are detected for the first time.     

非均匀组织医学超声发射声场仿真

为了分析医学超声在非均匀组织中的分布特性,建立了超声发射声场的计算模型。采用交错网格有限差分法对耦合超声非线性方程进行数值求解,获得了声速、密度及非线性参数非均匀分布情况下人体腹壁组织内的超声声场分布数据。同均匀介质相比:当声速均匀而密度非均匀时,声束仍聚焦良好,焦点处声能下降了1.8 dB;当密度均匀而声速非均匀时,声束发散严重,焦点处声能下降了3.8 dB,下降程度与非均匀组织接近。组织声速在空间分布的非均匀性是导致聚焦声束能量分布畸变的主要原因。