Properties of PVA tissue phantoms produced by directional solidification.

Author

Gouws, Gideon ; Kivell, Dayna-Marie ; Ryan, Brett ; Thomson, Matt ; Dawson, Andrew

Author_Institution

Sch. of Eng. & Comput. Sci., Victoria Univ. of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand

fYear

2011

fDate

18-21 Oct. 2011

Firstpage

1341

Lastpage

1344

Abstract

Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) cryogel samples prepared by repeated directional freezing and thawing steps are shown to display an anisotropic structure due to the effect of ice templating during the freezing process. The mechanical stability of the material is improved by the application of a number of directional freeze steps followed by thawing. The anisotropy of the material is confirmed by measurements of acoustic impedance and a simple model is proposed to explain the variation of impedance with the microstructure.

Keywords

acoustic impedance; biological tissues; crystal microstructure; directional solidification; freezing; mechanical stability; melting; phantoms; polymers; PVA tissue phantom properties; acoustic impedance variation; anisotropic structure; directional solidification; ice templating effect; material anisotropy; mechanical stability; microstructures; polyvinyl alcohol cryogel; repeated directional freezing process; thawing steps; Acoustics; Crystals; Fingers; Ice; Impedance; Temperature measurement;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Ultrasonics Symposium (IUS), 2011 IEEE International

Conference_Location

Orlando, FL

ISSN

1948-5719

Print_ISBN

978-1-4577-1253-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ULTSYM.2011.0331

Filename

6293505