How complex viscoelastic behaviors within a viscoelastic three-layer structure affect the measurement accuracy of ultrasound viscoelastic creep imaging

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to use finite element computational simulation to investigate the accuracy of ultrasound viscoelastic creep imaging for evaluating the viscoelastic properties of a heterogeneous viscoelastic three-layer structure. The findings suggest that, in general, viscoelastic creep imaging cannot accurately evaluate the viscoelastic properties of each layer of the viscoelastic three-layer structure. Inaccuracy in the evaluation is due to deviation or distortion of the creep curve of each element within the viscoelastic three-layer structure, resulting from the interaction between complicated viscoelastic behaviors of each layer within the viscoelastic three-layer structure.

Keywords:

• Elasticity
• elastography
• material characterization
• stiffness
• viscoelasticity
• viscoelastic properties

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the financial support provided by the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan (grant number: MOST 108-2218-E-002-046-MY3).

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Data availability

The complete data and MATLAB code for analyzing the data can be found in the following link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/13eYBx3umu8_-9iUbwn4QFnHVln07UO-d?usp=sharing