Effect of an elastic wall on the behavior of encapsulated microbubbles

Leila Aired (1) , Alexander Doinikov (1) , Ayache Bouakaz (1)

1 iBraiN - Imaging, Brain & Neuropsychiatry

The aim of this work is to study how boundaries with different mechanical properties affect the acoustic response of contrast agent microbubbles. To this end, numerical simulations are performed for two types of walls: a polystyrene (OptiCell) wall and a biological tissue. For each wall, the behavior of contrast microbubbles of three sizes is investigated. The spectral characteristics of the scattered pressure produced by the microbubbles are compared for two cases: the bubble oscillates far away from the wall and the same bubble oscillates in the immediate vicinity of the wall. The results of the simulations allow one to draw the following main conclusions. The effect of the OptiCell wall on the acoustic bubble response is stronger than that of the tissue wall. Changes in the bubble response near the wall are stronger when bubbles are excited above their fundamental resonance frequency. Changes are stronger for smaller bubbles and changes in the 2nd harmonic are stronger than those in the fundamental. The results obtained allow one to gain an insight into conditions under which the effect of an elastic wall on the acoustic response of a contrast agent microbubble is easier to be detected.

Mots clés: Contrast agent; Targeted imaging; Elastic wall

Domaines: Acoustique [physics.class-ph]

Leila Aired, Alexander Doinikov, Ayache Bouakaz. Effect of an elastic wall on the behavior of encapsulated microbubbles. Acoustics 2012, Apr 2012, Nantes, France. ⟨hal-00811112⟩