Modeling of wave propagation for medical ultrasound: a review

Numerical modeling of medical ultrasound has advanced tremendously in the past two decades. This opens up a great number of opportunities for medical ultrasound and associated technologies. Numerous new governing equations and algorithms have emerged and been applied to studying various medical ultrasound applications, including ultrasound imaging, photo-acoustic imaging, and therapeutic ultrasound. In addition, thanks to the rapid development of computers, modeling acoustic wave propagation in three-dimensional, large-scale domains has become a reality. This article will provide an indepth literature and technical review of recent progress on numerical modeling of medical ultrasound. Future challenges will also be discussed.