Magnetic Induction Tomography (MIT) is a non-invasive imaging technique, which has applications in both industrial and clinical settings. In essence, it is capable of reconstructing the electromagnetic parameters of an object from measurements made on its surface. With the exploitation of parallelism, it is possible to achieve high quality inexpensive MIT images for biomedical applications on clinically relevant time scales. In this paper we investigate the performance of different parallel implementations of the forward eddy current problem, which is the main computational component of the inverse problem through which measured voltages are converted into images. We show that a heterogeneous parallel method that exploits multiple CPUs and GPUs can provide a high level of parallel scaling, leading to considerably improved runtimes. We also show how multiple GPUs can be used in conjunction with deal.II, awidely-used open source finite element library.
KEYWORDScomputational electromagnetics, magnetic induction tomography, parallel applications
INTRODUCTIONMagnetic Induction Tomography (MIT) is a non-invasive imaging technique, which has applications in both industrial and clinical settings. In essence, it is capable of reconstructing the electromagnetic parameters of an object from measurements made on its surface. These parameters are the permittivity, , the permeability, , and the conductivity, . An MIT device consists of two sets of coils placed around the boundary of the object to be imaged. The first set of coils is used for the purpose of excitation, and by passing a current through each coil in turn, a primary magnetic field is created. The second set of coils is then used for measurement. This procedure causes an eddy current when each of the primary magnetic fields interacts with a conducting body inducing secondary magnetic fields, and hence voltages, that are measured in the second set of coils. In order to estimate the electromagnetic properties of the material, ( , , ), from the induced currents and measured voltage, an inverse problem must be solved. In many practical applications, the distribution of one or more of these material parameters is assumed to be constant throughout the medium of interest.Conventional imaging techniques for imaging cerebral stroke, such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Computer Tomography (CT), are expensive. Although MRI may be used for real-time image reconstruction, 1 it has been proposed that MIT can offer a low cost alternative in the first stages of diagnosis. 2 However, the low conductivity contrast between biomedical tissues presents significant challenges to MIT, and there are considerable difficulties in employing current computational techniques to solve the associated inverse problem. 3,4 Enabling MIT to take the step from being an experimental technique, which has already received some clinical interest, to become a viable imaging technique for the detection and monitoring of conditions, such as cerebral stroke, requires a step change in the quality of ...