Paper detail

Comparison of fractional wave equations for power law attenuation in ultrasound and elastography

A set of wave equations with fractional loss operators in time and space are analyzed. It is shown that the fractional Szabo equation, the power law wave equation, and the fractional Laplacian wave equation in the causal and non-causal forms all are low frequency approximations of the fractional Kelvin-Voigt wave equation and the more general fractional Zener wave equation. The latter two equations are based on fractional constitutive equations while the former wave equations are ad hoc, heuristic equations. We show that this has consequences for use in modelling and simulation especially for applications that do not satisfy the low frequency approximation, such as shear wave elastography. In such applications the wave equations based on constitutive equations are the preferred ones.