CAREER: Understanding the Fundamental Dynamics of Angular Momentum Carrying Acoustic Wave Propagation

该学院早期职业发展（CAREER）资助将使与各向异性生物材料中携带声波的角动量传播相关的新知识的发展成为可能，这对于它们在生物医学成像，治疗和治疗中的应用至关重要。携带角动量的声波，如声涡旋束，是一种特殊类型的声波，具有旋转的压力场或能流。先前的研究表明，这些波可能具有许多潜在的生物医学应用，包括比传统超声成像具有更好分辨率的医学成像，以及比经典聚焦超声疗法具有更高功效的肾结石和血凝块的靶向超声去除。然而，这些研究集中在水下传播的波，忽略了生物材料，如肌肉纤维的各向异性和异质性。最近的理论研究表明，声学角动量在各向异性或异质材料中传播时会耦合，改变波的传播路径，并可能阻碍它们在建议的生物医学应用中的可靠使用。该CAREER奖支持的研究旨在通过建模和实验来了解不同声学角动量之间的基本耦合机制，特别是在各向异性生物材料中传播时。这种理解将被应用于通过各向异性介质证明成像和血块溶栓能力。这项研究的结果将推进声学，动力学，生物力学以及生物医学工程方面的知识，并可能导致新的医学诊断和治疗。该奖项将通过与格鲁吉亚理工学院现有项目的合作，积极影响STEM教育，旨在吸引亚特兰大公立学校和亚特兰大国际学校的学生和高中科学教师，特别是目前代表性不足的群体，并促进他们参与研究。该奖项将利用格鲁吉亚科技创业挑战赛来激励本科生，并鼓励他们利用从这项研究中学到的知识参加这一跨学科创新竞赛。本研究的目的是建立和实验验证新的模型，准确地预测传播的角动量携带的声波在各向异性介质。固有和非固有声波在各向异性材料中传播时耦合，从而改变波的传播轨迹。这项研究的中心假设是，这种耦合发生通过科里奥利效应引起的旋转波介质相互作用。研究人员将在理论模型和在水下和软各向异性介质中进行的实验中测试这一假设。 他们将探索将这种理解转化为建议的成像和血栓溶解能力的能力，实验使用各向异性组织模拟凝胶。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

This Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) grant will enable the development of new knowledge related to the propagation of angular momentum carrying acoustic waves in anisotropic biomaterials, which is critical for their use in biomedical imaging, therapies, and treatment. Angular momentum carrying acoustic waves, such as acoustic vortex beam, are a special type of sound waves that have a rotating pressure field or energy flux. Previous studies indicated that these waves could have many potential biomedical applications, including medical imaging with better resolution than traditional ultrasound imaging and targeted ultrasonic removal of kidney stones and blood clots with higher efficacy than classical focused ultrasound therapies. However, these studies focused on waves propagating underwater and ignored the anisotropy and heterogeneity of biomaterials such as muscle fibers. Recent theoretical studies have indicated that acoustic angular momenta will couple when propagating in anisotropic or heterogeneity materials, altering the propagation path of the wave, and potentially impeding their reliable use in the suggested biomedical applications. The research supported by this CAREER award seeks to understand the fundamental coupling mechanism between different acoustic angular momenta, especially when propagating in anisotropic biomaterials, through modeling and experimentation. This understanding will be applied to demonstrate imaging and blood clot thrombolysis capabilities through anisotropic media. The results from this research will advance knowledge in acoustics, dynamics, biomechanics, as well as biomedical engineering, and can potentially lead to novel medical diagnostics and therapies. This award will positively impact STEM education through collaboration with existing programs at Georgia Tech aimed to engage students and high school science teachers from the Atlanta Public Schools and Atlanta International School, especially from currently underrepresented groups, and to promote their participation in research. This award will leverage the Georgia Tech InVenture Challenge to motivate undergraduate students and encourage them to compete in this interdisciplinary innovation competition using knowledge learned from this research. The objective of this research is to create and experimentally validate new models that accurately predict the propagation of angular momentum carrying acoustic waves in anisotropic media. Intrinstic and extrinsic acoustic waves become coupled when propagating in anisotropic materials, thus shifting the wave propagation trajectory. The central hypothesis of this research is that this coupling occurs through Coriolis effects resulting from rotations induced by the wave-medium interactions. The researchers will test this hypothesis in theoretical models and in experiments conducted underwater and in soft anisotropic media. They will probe the ability to translate this understanding to the suggested imaging and thrombolysis capabilities experimentally using anisotropic tissue mimicking gels.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.