Ultrasim

Ultrasim is an interactive, menu-oriented simulator for finding the sound field from transducers, primarily for medical ultrasound, but it can also be used for sonar and even loudspeakers.

Adaptation to newer versions of Matlab

Matlab has changed some of the commands and there is a description from 14 April 2016 on Matlab Central of how to make Ultrasim work with newer versions of Matlab.

New version 17 August 2007

Ultrasim can handle 1D, 1.5D and 2D linear and phased arrays, and flat and curved arrays with many different footprints such as rectangular and elliptical. It also handles annular arrays, axicons and Bessel transducers. Each simulation consists of a numerical integration of the contribution from all sub-elements of a transducer. The transducer excitation can be either continuous wave (CW) or a broad-band pulsed wave (PW). The simulator is implemented as a toolbox in MATLAB.

Here is the user interface showing the transducer first (superelliptic footprint) and then the beam pattern:

Here is an example that shows the difference between dynamic focus/dynamic aperture (typical ultrasound scanner in receive mode) and fixed focus/fixed aperture (Transmit mode) for a 14.08 mm 3.5 MHz probe (half wavelength pitch, 64 elements) focused at 20 mm. The simulation runs from 0 to 60 mm in depth and over +/- 15 mm transversally:

Fixed focus, full aperture

Dynamic focus, f/stop = 1.5

 

Here are some other nice animations of 3D fields, taken from the MSc. thesis of Kapila Epasinghe on simulation.


Ultrasim is covered by the GNU General Public License and has been developed in collaboration with the Ultrasound Group at the Department of circulation and medical imaging at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and Vingmed Sound (now GE Vingmed Ultrasound) . Ultrasim is acknowledgement-ware: it may be freely downloaded and used, provided that the University of Oslo is acknowledged as the author, and if results are used in an academic paper, by referencing to one of the papers about Ultrasim.


We would also like to hear from you about applications where Ultrasim has been used or if you have comments, questions or suggestions. Contact: Sverre Holm.

Published Mar. 8, 2011 2:54 PM - Last modified Feb. 25, 2020 10:44 AM