HIFU Induced Heating Modelling by Using the Finite Element Method

High intensity focused ultrasound is a thermal therapy method used to treat malignant tumors and other medical conditions. Focused ultrasound concentrates acoustic energy at a focal zone. There, temperature rises rapidly over 56 °C to provoke tissue necrosis. Device performance depends on its fabrication placing computational modeling as a powerful tool to anticipate experimentation results. Finite element method allows modeling of multiphysics systems. Therefore, induced heating was modeled considering the acoustic field produced by a concave radiator excited with electric potentials from 5 V to 20 V. Nonlinear propagation was neglected and a linear response between the acoustic fields and pressure distribution was obtained. Finally, the results showed that acoustic propagation and heating models should be improved and validated with experimental measurements.