SPECIAL APPLIED MATHEMATICS SEMINAR

ABSTRACT OF THE TALK
High-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) is a rapidly developing medical technology to perform a non-invasive thermal ablation of tumors. One of the major objectives of this study is to achieve a virtually complete necrosis of tumors close to major blood vessels and to avoid blood vessel damage. The present study is aimed at predicting liver tumor temperature during HIFU thermal ablation in a patient-specific liver geometry. The model comprises the nonlinear Westervelt equation and bioheat equations in liver and blood vessels. The nonlinear hemodynamic equations with the convective cooling and acoustic streaming effects are also taken into account. We found from this three-dimensional three-field coupling study that in large blood vessel both convective cooling and acoustic streaming may change the temperature considerably near blood vessel. More precisely, acoustic streaming velocity magnitude can be several times larger than the blood vessel velocity. The experience learned from the current work can be used to construct a surgical planning platform under current development.
BIOGRAPHY
Professor Tony Wen-Hann Sheu received his Ph.D. from Purdue University with the Department of Mechanical Engineering in1986. He is the Deputy Director of the Center of Advanced Study in Theoretical Sciences (CASTS), a professor in Institute of Applied Mathematical Sciences, and a professor in the Department of Mathematics at National Taiwan University. His research includes computational fluid dynamics, optics, heat and mass transfer, surgical planning, and computational physics.