Efficient Computational Tool for RF-Induced Bio-Thermal Response

ABSTRACT:Radio-frequency (RF) transmitting devices are found nearly everywhere today, ranging from lower-power cell phones to radar equipment to high-energy weapons systems. Accidental exposure of humans to the RF radiation emanating from these devices can cause harmful thermal effects including tissue damage or death. Modeling these thermal effects across a whole population of humans is difficult and time consuming using todays tools and can constitute a very expensive phase during the design of RF transmitting equipment. We will meet this industry need by converting the faster-than-real-time algorithms we developed during Phase I into high-quality commercial software products. We will extend our prototype thermal tool using out-of-core techniques to solve very large, high-resolution problems on diverse computing platforms containing one or many graphics processing units (GPU). We will also implement any remaining physics and diagnostics that are important for biological modeling, including computing cumulative exposure endpoints on the GPU, in real time. Furthermore, we will design and implement a user-friendly graphical user interface that will enable the thermal analyst to quickly and efficiently setup an RF exposure scenario, launch the analysis tools, monitor the progress of the simulation, and visualize the results.BENEFIT:These new algorithms and tools will enable the RF device manufacturing community to rapidly assess the possibility of RF overexposure caused by new device designs. They will be used in guiding new hyperthermia treatments for malignant tumors. The tools will immediately give feedback to physicians about possible under or overexposure of target tissues as well as the surrounding tissues, making the treatments more effective and safer for the patient. Our tools will also be used for thermal comfort design by the HVAC and technical fabric communities. In this context, the tools will help the designers evaluate the effects of design decisions on not just one thermal manikin, but across a whole population of individuals having different metabolisms, sweating rates, fat contents, etc. The third community that will benefit from these next-generation thermal modeling tools is the cell phone industry. Our tools will help cell phone tower operators to design safer operating and maintenance procedures when RF exposure may be necessary for the job. The tools will also be useful for determining temperature distributions in humans when they are using a cell phone. In particular, the fast speed of the tools will finally make it easy for manufacturers to predict and correct for exposure levels during the design phase of new cell phones, long before the FCC certification process.