Finite element discretization of nonlinear models of ultrasound heating

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Careaga, Julio, Dörich, Benjamin, Nikolić, Vanja
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Careaga, Julio
Dörich, Benjamin
Nikolić, Vanja
author_facet Careaga, Julio
Dörich, Benjamin
Nikolić, Vanja
contents Heating generated by high-intensity focused ultrasound waves is central to many emerging medical applications, including non-invasive cancer therapy and targeted drug delivery. In this study, we aim to gain a fundamental understanding of numerical simulations in this context by analyzing conforming finite element approximations of the underlying nonlinear models that describe ultrasound-heat interactions. These models are based on a coupling of a nonlinear Westervelt--Kuznetsov acoustic wave equation to the heat equation with a pressure-dependent source term. A particular challenging feature of the system is that the acoustic medium parameters may depend on the temperature. The core of our new arguments in the \emph{a prior} error analysis lies in devising energy estimates for the coupled semi-discrete system that can accommodate the nonlinearities present in the model. To derive them, we exploit the parabolic nature of the system thanks to the strong damping present in the acoustic component. Theoretically obtained optimal convergence rates in the energy norm are confirmed by the numerical experiments. In addition, we conduct a further numerical study of the problem, where we simulate the propagation of acoustic waves in liver tissue for an initially excited profile and under high-frequency sources.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2501_18307
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Finite element discretization of nonlinear models of ultrasound heating
Careaga, Julio
Dörich, Benjamin
Nikolić, Vanja
Numerical Analysis
35L05, 35L72, 34A34
Heating generated by high-intensity focused ultrasound waves is central to many emerging medical applications, including non-invasive cancer therapy and targeted drug delivery. In this study, we aim to gain a fundamental understanding of numerical simulations in this context by analyzing conforming finite element approximations of the underlying nonlinear models that describe ultrasound-heat interactions. These models are based on a coupling of a nonlinear Westervelt--Kuznetsov acoustic wave equation to the heat equation with a pressure-dependent source term. A particular challenging feature of the system is that the acoustic medium parameters may depend on the temperature. The core of our new arguments in the \emph{a prior} error analysis lies in devising energy estimates for the coupled semi-discrete system that can accommodate the nonlinearities present in the model. To derive them, we exploit the parabolic nature of the system thanks to the strong damping present in the acoustic component. Theoretically obtained optimal convergence rates in the energy norm are confirmed by the numerical experiments. In addition, we conduct a further numerical study of the problem, where we simulate the propagation of acoustic waves in liver tissue for an initially excited profile and under high-frequency sources.
title Finite element discretization of nonlinear models of ultrasound heating
topic Numerical Analysis
35L05, 35L72, 34A34
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.18307