Ultrasonic Attenuation and Speed in phantoms made of PVCP and Evaluation of acoustic and thermal properties of ultrasonic phantoms made of polyvinyl chloride-plastisol (PVCP)

Biological phantoms are commonly used on biomedical ultrasound research, but they have some limitation. We have been studying the acoustic and thermal properties of polyvinyl chloride-plastisol (PVCP) that have longer time stability. We estimated thermal conductivity in steady-state methods and specific heat with Method of Mixture. PVCP blocks were made with different graphite and PVC powders concentrations. US speed and attenuation presented the expected behavior as a function of powder concentration, that is, they tend to have growing values. US speed values are between 1400 and 1470 m/s, while attenuation is in the range 0.14 –1.16 dB/cm. Specific heat values ranged from 1.16 2.65 J/(kg°C) and thermal conductivity values range from 0.0603 – 0.1243 J (s oC m). The thermal conductivity and acoustic attenuation values are similar to fat tissue and can be adjusted to other types of tissue by mixing, for instance, graphite or PVC powder.