GPU based simulator of ultrasound pressure fields

Abstract

Simulation of ultrasound pressure fields is representative computationally demanding algorithm. In order to get results back in finite time, the number of source points and observation points are often limited. The introduction of graphics processing unit (GPU) can significantly speed up this algorithm. We implemented the simulator which based on the same principle as the Ultrasim toolbox, where spherical waves responses from several point sources are accumulated in a set of observation points, hence solving the Rayleigh-Sommerfeld integral. For each calculation at a given observation point is independent of the result at all other observation points, the problem is therefore perfect for GPU computing. Compared with Ultrasim we give a 400 times speedup when simulating on 150K observation points.