Enhancement and quenching of high-intensity focused ultrasound cavitation activity via short frequency sweep gaps

This letter reports on the use of frequency sweeps to probe acoustic cavitation activity generated by high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU). Unprecedented enhancement and quenching of HIFU cavitation activity were observed when short frequency sweep gaps were applied in negative and positive directions, respectively. It was revealed that irrespective of the frequency gap, it is the direction and frequency sweep rate that govern the cavitation activity. These effects are related to the response of bubbles generated by the starting frequency to the direction of the frequency sweep, and the influence of the sweep rate on growth and coalescence of bubbles, which in turn affects the active bubble population. These findings are relevant for the use of HIFU in chemical and therapeutic applications, where greater control of cavitation bubble population is critical.     

脉冲超声激励下SonoVue微泡的瞬态空化特性

将SonoVue微泡从临床疾病诊断拓展至治疗引起了诸多研究人员的兴趣。为了平衡治疗效率和生物安全性,深入理解声学参数和SonoVue微泡瞬态空化的关系至关重要。本研究自行制备仿体容器放置SonoVue微泡,使用1 MHz发射换能器激励其产生空化效应,另一个7.5 MHz的聚焦换能器接收声信号,经放大及高速数据采集后送上位机处理。通过深入分析信号的时频域特征,我们提出以宽带信号的能量及其随时间变化曲线的半高宽来表征瞬态空化的剂量(ICD)和相对持续时间(ICP),并确定:瞬态空化的发生和ICD依赖于峰值负声压,但ICP随峰值负声压的增加而减小;脉冲重复频率和脉冲持续时间都和ICD及ICP正相关;且脉冲持续时间的影响较大。这些结果有望为SonoVue微泡的治疗应用提供理论支持。     

Spatial-temporal dynamics of cavitation bubble clouds in 1.2 MHz focused ultrasound field

Cavitation bubbles have been recognized as being essential to many applications of ultrasound. Temporal evolution and spatial distribution of cavitation bubble clouds induced by a focused ultrasound transducer of 1.2 MHz center frequency are investigated by high-speed photography. It is revealed that at a total acoustic power of 72 W the cavitation bubble cloud first emerges in the focal region where cavitation bubbles are observed to generate, grow, merge and collapse during the initial 600 μs. The bubble cloud then grows upward to the post-focal region, and finally becomes visible in the pre-focal region. The structure of the final bubble cloud is characterized by regional distribution of cavitation bubbles in the ultrasound field. The cavitation bubble cloud structure remains stable when the acoustic power is increased from 25 W to 107 W, but it changes to a more violent form when the acoustic power is further increased to 175 W.     

基于分数导数研究高强度聚焦超声的非线性声场

在高强度聚焦超声(high intensity focused ultrasound, HIFU) 的研究中, 生物组织的衰减和色散性质会对声能量的空间分布产生影响. 本文提出应用分数导数修正非线性Khokhlov-Zabolotskaya-Kuznetsov (KZK)方程, 研究生物组织中非线性HIFU声场. 对三种生物仿体的衰减和声速色散的理论实验研究表明分数导数应用的可行性, 在此基础上通过数值仿真分析研究了衰减及声速随频率的变化对HIFU焦域分布的影响. 研究结果表明, 在计算强非线性聚焦超声时, 由于高次谐波的强色散作用, 引入分数导数来解决生物组织特殊的衰减以及色散问题可进一步提高HIFU治疗的安全性. 关键词： 分数导数 声衰减 色散 高强度聚焦超声     

Numerical simulation of cavitation bubble dynamics induced by ultrasound waves in a high frequency reactor

The use of high frequency ultrasound in chemical systems is of major interest to optimize chemical procedures. Characterization of an open air 477 kHz ultrasound reactor shows that, because of the collapse of transient cavitation bubbles and pulsation of stable cavitation bubbles, chemical reactions are enhanced. Numerical modelling is undertaken to determine the spatio-temporal evolution of cavitation bubbles. The calculus of the emergence of cavitation bubbles due to the acoustic driving (by taking into account interactions between the sound field and bubbles' distribution) gives a cartography of bubbles' emergence within the reactor. Computation of their motion induced by the pressure gradients occurring in the reactor show that they migrate to the pressure nodes. Computed bubbles levitation sites gives a cartography of the chemical activity of ultrasound. Modelling of stable cavitation bubbles' motion induced by the motion of the liquid gives some insight on degassing phenomena.     

Weakly nonlinear focused ultrasound in viscoelastic media containing multiple bubbles

To facilitate practical medical applications such as cancer treatment utilizing focused ultrasound and bubbles, a mathematical model that can describe the soft viscoelasticity of human body, the nonlinear propagation of focused ultrasound, and the nonlinear oscillations of multiple bubbles is theoretically derived and numerically solved. The Zener viscoelastic model and Keller–Miksis bubble equation, which have been used for analyses of single or few bubbles in viscoelastic liquid, are used to model the liquid containing multiple bubbles. From the theoretical analysis based on the perturbation expansion with the multiple-scales method, the Khokhlov–Zabolotskaya–Kuznetsov (KZK) equation, which has been used as a mathematical model of weakly nonlinear propagation in single phase liquid, is extended to viscoelastic liquid containing multiple bubbles. The results show that liquid elasticity decreases the magnitudes of the nonlinearity, dissipation, and dispersion of ultrasound and increases the phase velocity of the ultrasound and linear natural frequency of the bubble oscillation. From the numerical calculation of resultant KZK equation, the spatial distribution of the liquid pressure fluctuation for the focused ultrasound is obtained for cases in which the liquid is water or liver tissue. In addition, frequency analysis is carried out using the fast Fourier transform, and the generation of higher harmonic components is compared for water and liver tissue. The elasticity suppresses the generation of higher harmonic components and promotes the remnant of the fundamental frequency components. This indicates that the elasticity of liquid suppresses shock wave formation in practical applications.     

Spatial distribution of sonoluminescence and sonochemiluminescence generated by cavitation bubbles in 1.2 MHz focused ultrasound field

An intensified charge coupled device (ICCD) camera was used to observe the spatial distribution of sonoluminescence (SL) and sonochemiluminescence (SCL) generated by cavitation bubbles in a 1.2 MHz focused ultrasound (FU) field in order to investigate the mechanisms of acoustic cavitation under different sonication conditions for FU therapeutic applications.It was found that SL emissions were located in the post-focal region. When the intensity of SL and SCL increased as the power rose, the growth of SCL was much higher than that of SL. In the post-focal region, the SCL emissions moved along specific paths and formed branch-like streamers. At the beginning of the ultrasound irradiation, cavitation bubbles generated SCL in both the pre-focal and the post-focal region. When the electrical power or the sonication time increased, the SCL in the post-focal region increased and became higher than that in the pre-focal region. The intensity of SCL in the focal region is usually the weakest because of “oversaturation”.The spatial distribution of SCL near a tissue boundary differed from that obtained in free fields. It organized into special structures under different acoustic amplitudes. When the electrical power was relatively low, the SCL emission was conical shape which suggested a standing wave formation at the tissue-fluid boundary. When the electrical power exceeded a certain threshold, only a bright spot could be captured in the focus. The cavitation bubbles which centralized in the focus concentrated energy and hindered the formation of standing waves. With rising electrical power at high levels, besides a bright spot in the focus, there were some irregular light spots in pre-focal region, which indicated some cavitation bubbles or small bubble clusters achieved the threshold of SCL and induced the reaction with the luminol solution.     

Visualization and optimization of cavitation activity at a solid surface in high frequency ultrasound fields

Despite the increasing use of high frequency ultrasound in heterogeneous reactions, knowledge about the spatial distribution of cavitation bubbles at the irradiated solid surface is still lacking. This gap hinders controllable surface sonoreactions. Here we present an optimization study of the cavitation bubble distribution at a solid sample using sonoluminescence and sonochemiluminescence imaging. The experiments were performed at three ultrasound frequencies, namely 580, 860 and 1142 kHz. We found that position and orientation of the sample to the transducer, as well as its material properties influence the distribution of active cavitation bubbles at the sample surface in the reactor. The reason is a significant modification of the acoustic field due to reflections and absorption of the ultrasonic wave by the solid. This is retraced by numerical simulations employing the Finite Element Method, yielding reasonable agreement of luminescent zones and high acoustic pressure amplitudes in 2D simulations. A homogeneous coverage of the test sample surface with cavitation is finally reached at nearly vertical inclination with respect to the incident wave.     

Spatial and temporal observation of phase-shift nano-emulsions assisted cavitation and ablation during focused ultrasound exposure

Background: Phase-shift nano-emulsions (PSNEs) with a small initial diameter in nanoscale have the potential to leak out of the blood vessels and to accumulate at the target point of tissue. At desired location, PSNEs can undergo acoustic droplet vaporization (ADV) process, change into gas bubbles and enhance focused ultrasound efficiency. The threshold of droplet vaporization and influence of acoustic parameters have always been research hotspots in order to spatially control the potential of bioeffects and optimize experimental conditions. However, when the pressure is much higher than PSNEs’ vaporization threshold, there were little reports on their cavitation and thermal effects.Object: In this study, PSNEs induced cavitation and ablation effects during pulsed high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) exposure were investigated, including the spatial and temporal information and the influence of acoustic parameters.Methods: Two kinds of tissue-mimicking phantoms with uniform PSNEs were prepared because of their optical transparency. The Sonoluminescence (SL) method was employed to visualize the cavitation activities. And the ablation process was observed as the heat deposition could produce white lesion.Results: Precisely controlled HIFU cavitation and ablation can be realized at a relatively low input power. But when the input power was high, PSNEs can accelerate cavitation and ablation in pre-focal region. The cavitation happened layer by layer advancing the transducer. While the lesion appeared to be separated into two parts, one in pre-focal region stemmed from one point and grew quickly, the other in focal region grew much more slowly. The influence of duty cycle has also been examined. Longer pulse off time would cause heat transfer to the surrounding media, and generate smaller lesion. On the other hand, this would give outer layer bubbles enough time to dissolve, and inner bubbles can undergo violent collapse and emit bright light.     

Sonoluminescence characterization of inertial cavitation inside a BSA phantom treated by pulsed HIFU

The aim of this study was to investigate the inertial cavitation inside a phantom treated by pulsed HIFU (pHIFU). Basic bovine serum albumin (BSA) phantoms without any inherent ultrasound contrast agents (UCAs) or phase-shift nano-emulsions (PSNEs) were used. During the treatment, sonoluminescence (SL) recordings were performed to characterize the spatial distribution of inertial cavitation adjacent to the focal region. High-speed photographs and thermal coagulations, comparing with the SL results, were also recorded and presented. A series of pulse parameters (pulse duration (PD) was between 1 and 23 cycles and pulse repetition frequency (PRF) was between 0.5 kHz and 100 kHz) were performed to make a systematic investigation under certain acoustic power (APW). Continuous HIFU (cHIFU) investigation was also performed to serve as control group. It was found that, when APW was 19.5 W, pHIFU with short PD was much easier to form SL adjacent to the focal region inside the phantom, while it was difficult for cHIFU to generate cavitation bubbles. With appropriate PD and PRF, the residual bubbles of the previous pulses could be stimulated by the incident pulses to oscillate in a higher level and even violently collapse, resulting to enhanced physical thermogenesis. The experimental results showed that the most violent inertial cavitation occurs when PD was set to 6 cycles (5 μs) and PRF to 10 kHz, while the highest level of thermal coagulation was observed when PD was set to 10 cycles. The cavitational and thermal characteristics were in good correspondence, exhibiting significant potentiality regarding to inject-free cavitation bubble enhanced thermal ablation under lower APW, compared to the conventional thermotherapy.     

混响场中脉冲超声空化效应的研究

本文实验研究了不同脉冲宽度的８２０ｋＨｚ超声波的空化效应，结果得出，空化致自基产量随脉冲宽度及声强呈现规律性变化，尤其观察到了“脉冲空化峰”现象，本文从液面受迫振动角度出混响场中“脉冲空化峰”现象的机制。     

Nakagami-m parametric imaging for characterization of thermal coagulation and cavitation erosion induced by HIFU

Nowadays, both thermal and mechanical ablation techniques of HIFU associated with cavitation have been developed for noninvasive treatment. A specific challenge for the successful clinical implementation of HIFU is to achieve real-time imaging for the evaluation and determination of therapy outcomes such as necrosis or homogenization. Ultrasound Nakagami-m parametric imaging highlights the degrading shadowing effects of bubbles and can be used for tissue characterization. The aim of this study is to investigate the performance of Nakagami-m parametric imaging for evaluating and differentiating thermal coagulation and cavitation erosion induced by HIFU. Lesions were induced in basic bovine serum albumin (BSA) phantoms and ex vivo porcine livers using a 1.6 MHz single-element transducer. Thermal and mechanical lesions induced by two types of HIFU sequences respectively were evaluated using Nakagami-m parametric imaging and ultrasound B-mode imaging. The lesion sizes estimated using Nakagami-m parametric imaging technique were all closer to the actual sizes than those of B-mode imaging. The p-value obtained from the t-test between the mean m values of thermal coagulation and cavitation erosion was smaller than 0.05, demonstrating that the m values of thermal lesions were significantly different from that of mechanical lesions, which was confirmed by ex vivo experiments and histologic examination showed that different changes result from HIFU exposure, one of tissue dehydration resulting from the thermal effect, and the other of tissue homogenate resulting from mechanical effect. This study demonstrated that Nakagami-m parametric imaging is a potential real-time imaging technique for evaluating and differentiating thermal coagulation and cavitation erosion.     

Prediction of vascular injury by cavitation microbubbles in a focused ultrasound field

Many studies have shown that microbubble cavitation is one mechanism for vascular injury under ultrasonic excitation. Previous work has attributed vascular damage to vessel expansions and invaginations due to the expansion and contraction of microbubbles. However, the mechanisms of vascular damage are not fully understood. In this paper, we investigate, theoretically and experimentally, the vessel injury due to stress induced by ultrasound-induced cavitation (UIC). A bubble-fluid-vessel coupling model is constructed to investigate the interactions of the coupling system. The dynamics process of vessel damage due to UIC is theoretically simulated with a finite element method, and a focused ultrasound (FU) setup is carried out and used to assess the vessel damage. The results show that shear stress contributes to vessel injury by cell detachment while normal stress mainly causes distention injury. Similar changes in cell detachment in a vessel over time can be observed with the experimental setup. The severity of vascular injury is correlated to acoustic parameters, bubble-wall distance, and microbubble sizes, and the duration of insonation..     

亚临界水中超声激励空化泡动力学分析

考察亚临界水中压力和温度对超声空化泡动力学的影响。应用非线性Rayleigh-Plesset方程模拟空化泡运动过程,并利用Matlab软件编程求数值解,用碘量法测定超声在亚临界水中的声空化产额。结果表明:当亚临界水的压力相似文献   

The issue of cavitation number value in studies of water treatment by hydrodynamic cavitation

Within the last years there has been a substantial increase in reports of utilization of hydrodynamic cavitation in various applications. It has came to our attention that many times the results are poorly repeatable with the main reason being that the researchers put significant emphasis on the value of the cavitation number when describing the conditions at which their device operates.In the present paper we firstly point to the fact that the cavitation number cannot be used as a single parameter that gives the cavitation condition and that large inconsistencies in the reports exist. Then we show experiments where the influences of the geometry, the flow velocity, the medium temperature and quality on the size, dynamics and aggressiveness of cavitation were assessed. Finally we show that there are significant inconsistencies in the definition of the cavitation number itself.In conclusions we propose a number of parameters, which should accompany any report on the utilization of hydrodynamic cavitation, to make it repeatable and to enable faster progress of science and technology development.     

Effects of nonlinear propagation, cavitation, and boiling in lesion formation by high intensity focused ultrasound in a gel phantom

The importance of nonlinear acoustic wave propagation and ultrasound-induced cavitation in the acceleration of thermal lesion production by high intensity focused ultrasound was investigated experimentally and theoretically in a transparent protein-containing gel. A numerical model that accounted for nonlinear acoustic propagation was used to simulate experimental conditions. Various exposure regimes with equal total ultrasound energy but variable peak acoustic pressure were studied for single lesions and lesion stripes obtained by moving the transducer. Static overpressure was applied to suppress cavitation. Strong enhancement of lesion production was observed for high amplitude waves and was supported by modeling. Through overpressure experiments it was shown that both nonlinear propagation and cavitation mechanisms participate in accelerating lesion inception and growth. Using B-mode ultrasound, cavitation was observed at normal ambient pressure as weakly enhanced echogenicity in the focal region, but was not detected with overpressure. Formation of tadpole-shaped lesions, shifted toward the transducer, was always observed to be due to boiling. Boiling bubbles were visible in the gel and were evident as strongly echogenic regions in B-mode images. These experiments indicate that nonlinear propagation and cavitation accelerate heating, but no lesion displacement or distortion was observed in the absence of boiling.     

Detecting incipient cavitation by assessing low frequency acceleration and analysis of CMC

Cavitation is a common phenomenon in a fluid circuit especially wherever local pressure is lower than fluid saturated pressure. The cavitation negatively affects a fluid system and structure in different ways: i.e. erosion, flow rate reduction, noise and vibration. In order to diminish cavitation, adding some nanomaterials seem to be applicable in different ways. This research aims at assessing the effects of CMC (Carboxy methyl cellulose) additives on incipient cavitation by analyzing the resultant change in low frequency acceleration. Furthermore, this study attempts to examine the accuracy of low frequency acceleration for detecting incipient cavitation.     

Analytical and numerical calculations of optimum design frequency for focused ultrasound therapy and acoustic radiation force

Focused ultrasound therapy relies on acoustic power absorption by tissue. The stronger the absorption the higher the temperature increase is. However, strong acoustic absorption also means faster attenuation and limited penetration depth. Hence, there is a trade-off between heat generation efficacy and penetration depth. In this paper, we formulated the acoustic power absorption as a function of frequency and attenuation coefficient, and defined two figures of merit to measure the power absorption: spatial peak of the acoustic power absorption density, and the acoustic power absorbed within the focal area. Then, we derived “rule of thumb” expressions for the optimum frequencies that maximized these figures of merit given the target depth and homogeneous tissue type. We also formulated a method to calculate the optimum frequency for inhomogeneous tissue given the tissue composition for situations where the tissue structure can be assumed to be made of parallel layers of homogeneous tissue. We checked the validity of the rules using linear acoustic field simulations. For a one-dimensional array of 4 cm acoustic aperture, and for a two-dimensional array of 4 × 4 cm² acoustic aperture, we found that the power absorbed within the focal area is maximized at 0.86 MHz, and 0.79 MHz, respectively, when the target depth is 4 cm in muscle tissue. The rules on the other hand predicted the optimum frequencies for acoustic power absorption as 0.9 MHz and 0.86 MHz, respectively for the 1D and 2D array case, which are within 6% and 9% of the field simulation results. Because radiation force generated by an acoustic wave in a lossy propagation medium is approximately proportional to the acoustic power absorption, these rules can be used to maximize acoustic radiation force generated in tissue as well.     

Quantitative evaluation of the microjet velocity and cavitation erosion on a copper plate produced by a spherical cavity focused transducer at the high hydrostatic pressure

Cavitation erosion at the high hydrostatic pressure causes the equipment to operate abnormally for the huge economic losses. Few methods can quantitatively evaluate the cavitation erosion intensity. In order to solve this problem, the cavitation erosion on a copper plate was carried out in a spherical cavity focused transducer system at the hydrostatic pressure of 3, 6, and 10 MPa. Meanwhile, the corresponding cavitation threshold, the initial bubble radius, and the microjet velocity in the ultrasonic field are theoretically analyzed to determine the dimension and velocity of microjet based on the following hypotheses: (1) the influence of the coalescence on the bubble collapse is ignored; (2) the dimension of the microjet is equal to the largest bubble size without the influence of gravity and buoyancy. Using the Westervelt equation for the nonlinear wave propagation and the Johnson-Cook material constitutive model for the high strain rate, a microjet impact model of the multi-bubble cavitation was constructed. In addition, through the analogy with the indentation test, an inversion model was proposed to calculate the microjet velocity and the cavitation erosion intensity. The microjet geometric model was constructed from the dimension and velocity of the microjet. The continuous microjet impact was proposed according to the equivalent impact momentum and solved by the finite element method. The relative errors of the pit depth are 4.02%, 3.34%, and 1.84% at the hydrostatic pressure of 3, 6, and 10 MPa, respectively, and the relative error in the evolution of pit morphology is 7.33% at 10 MPa, which verified the reliability of the proposed models. Experimental and simulation results show that the higher the hydrostatic pressure, the greater the pit depth, pit diameter, the pit-to-microjet diameter ratio, and the cavitation erosion intensity, but the smaller the pit diameter-to-depth ratio. The cavitation erosion intensity becomes significant with the ongoing ultrasonic exposure. In addition, a comparison of the cavitation pit morphology in the microjet pulsed and continuous impact modes shows that the continuous impact mode is effective without the elastic deformation caused by the residual stress. Using the cavitation pit morphology at the different hydrostatic pressures, the microjet velocity can be estimated successfully and accurately in a certain range, whose corresponding errors at the lower and upper limit are 5.98% and 0.11% at 3 MPa, 6.62% and 9.14% at 6 MPa, 6.54% and 5.42% at 10 MPa, respectively. Our proposed models are valid only when the cavitation pit diameter-to-depth ratio is close to 1. Altogether, the cavitation erosion induced by multi-bubble collapses in the focal region of a focused transducer could be evaluated both experimentally and numerically. Using the cavitation pit morphology and the inversion model, the microjet velocity in a certain range could be estimated successfully with satisfactory accuracy.     

Theoretical model of ice nucleation induced by inertial acoustic cavitation. Part 2: Number of ice nuclei generated by a single bubble

In the preceding paper (part 1), the pressure and temperature fields close to a bubble undergoing inertial acoustic cavitation were presented. It was shown that extremely high liquid water pressures but quite moderate temperatures were attained near the bubble wall just after the collapse providing the necessary conditions for ice nucleation. In this paper (part 2), the nucleation rate and the nuclei number generated by a single collapsing bubble were determined. The calculations were performed for different driving acoustic pressures, liquid ambient temperatures and bubble initial radius. An optimal acoustic pressure range and a nucleation temperature threshold as function of bubble radius were determined. The capability of moderate power ultrasound to trigger ice nucleation at low undercooling level and for a wide distribution of bubble sizes has thus been assessed on the theoretical ground.