Field modelling acceleration on ultrasonic systems using graphic hardware

Field modelling is a common practice in the area of ultrasonic non-destructive evaluation (NDE) because it is a useful tool for assessing NDE imaging. However, it is a very time consuming task because of its complexity and data volume, making difficult its use in systems demanding real time responses. Recently, graphics processing units (GPUs) have experienced an extraordinary evolution in both computing performance and programmability, leading to greater use on non-rendering applications. This work shows that the use of GPU technology, which has a high level of parallelism, accelerates the ultrasonic field simulation, reducing the computing time in more than one order of magnitude respect to CPU implementations.