GPU-Accelerated Finite Element and Finite Difference Methods for Scattering Problems in Voxel-based Human Models

The GPU-accelerated implementations of two three-dimensional full-wave electromagnetic solvers for scattering radiofrequency problems, based on the finite element and the finite difference methods, are compared in terms of accuracy and performances, looking also at the achieved speed-up with respect to the serial CPU implementations. The finite element method shows a speed-up of about 10 for medium-size problems, whereas the acceleration rises up to 50 when the finite difference method is used. The described codes are then used to compute the specific absorption rate of a magnetic resonance imaging radiofrequency birdcage coil in a voxel-based anatomical human model.