Chi J, Liu F, Jin J, Mason D G, Crozier S
School of Automation Engineering, Qingdao University, China.
Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2010;2010:3305-8. doi: 10.1109/IEMBS.2010.5627497.
The finite difference time domain (FDTD) method is a popular technique for computational electromagnetics (CEM). The large computational power often required, however, has been a limiting factor for its applications. In this paper, we will present a graphics processing unit (GPU)-based parallel FDTD solver and its successful application to the investigation of a novel B1 shimming scheme for high-field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The optimized shimming scheme exhibits considerably improved transmit B(1) profiles. The GPU implementation dramatically shortened the runtime of FDTD simulation of electromagnetic field compared with its CPU counterpart. The acceleration in runtime has made such investigation possible, and will pave the way for other studies of large-scale computational electromagnetic problems in modern MRI which were previously impractical.
时域有限差分(FDTD)方法是计算电磁学(CEM)中一种常用的技术。然而,其通常所需的巨大计算能力一直是其应用的限制因素。在本文中,我们将介绍一种基于图形处理单元(GPU)的并行FDTD求解器及其在研究用于高场磁共振成像(MRI)的新型B1匀场方案中的成功应用。优化后的匀场方案展现出显著改善的发射B(1)分布。与基于中央处理器(CPU)的实现相比,GPU实现极大地缩短了电磁场FDTD模拟的运行时间。运行时间的加速使得此类研究成为可能,并将为现代MRI中其他大规模计算电磁问题的研究铺平道路,而这些问题在此前是不切实际的。